KARACHI, Feb 19: Karachi were heading towards an embarrassing defeat in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy match after losing five second innings wickets against Faisalabad at the National Stadium on Thursday.

The hosts closed the penultimate day of the four-day fixture at 107 for five, with all the big guns silenced, after being set a reachable target of 281. Their hopes of a highly unlikely victory on Friday now rests on the slim shoulders of Asim Kamal.

Asim, the Test left-hander, was the only Karachi batsman to offer some fight while battling his way to an unbeaten 33. Otherwise, the least said about the rest the better.

Faisalabad owed their strong position to a magnificent innings of 115 by their skipper Misbah-ul-Haq, who struck 19 fours and one six in a knock was so crucial to the visitors. The Karachiites, however, were aggrieved by a couple of debatable umpiring decisions which changed the entire complexion of the game.

Misbah, in particular, was extremely fortunate not to be adjudged leg-before-wicket by Test umpire Athar Zaidi before he had added to his overnight tally of 31 when Test speedster Mohammad Sami trapped right in front of the stumps.

Misbah, who had barely moved onto the front foot, rejoiced at his good fortune as a devastated Sami trudged back to his bowling mark in total disbelief.

Had Mr Zaidi answered that appeal in the affirmative, Faisalabad would have been 53 for four at that point. The Test right-hander, nonetheless, batted superbly throughout his stay of 332 minutes before he was last out at 215.

Iqbal Butt, the other umpire, enraged the Karachi side later in the evening when he sent Naumanullah on his way. The ball from left-arm paceman Sami Niazi deflected towards fine-leg after hitting Nauman's extended front leg.

Nauman, ironically, was also given out caught behind by the same official in the first innings when there was a yawning gap between the bat and the ball.

Karachi skipper Moin Khan, visibly perturbed at the substandard umpiring, fell cheaply to medium-pacer Ahmed Hayat, who was incorrectly mentioned in this column as being almost 35 years of age.

Mansoor Rana, the Faisalabad coach, cleared the confusion on Thursday when he clarified that it was another player of the same name, who like Ahmed Hayat also hails from Sargodha.

"Actually, Ahmed Hayat, who is playing here is 26-year-old and is an all-rounder. The other Ahmed Hayat, in question played as a right-handed batsman for Sargodha between 1988 and 1992," he told Dawn.

The confusion was created by the current PCB Annual book which has credited the performance of Ahmed Hayat Gondal, his full name, to the other player whose full name is Ahmed Hayat Khan.

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