LAHORE, Nov 27: Defending champions Faisalabad earned maximum points after Karachi Blues made a sensational declaration on Saturday to their first innings on a dramatic opening day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.

The four-day match which got under way at 1.30pm after the fog cleared, ended in bizarre circumstances when Karachi Blues captain Rashid Latif called back his batsmen after a delivery from Shahid Nazir rose awkwardly and hit Farhan Adil on his finger.

At that stage, the Blues, who were asked to bat first by Faisalabad skipper Misbahul Haq, had reached 33 for four in 14.1 overs.

Rashid, the former Test skipper, immediately rushed to the field and pleaded with the umpires, Mian Aslam and Rasheed Bhatti, to call off the game citing the pitch was dangerous and unfit for first-class cricket.

But the umpires refused to stop the match. Rashid, who was to bat next, retaliated by declaring his side's innings upon which the umpires decided to award the match to Faisalabad after failing to convince the visiting captain.

Shahid, the former Test medium-pacer, claimed all the four wickets, which fell in the Karachi Blues innings, in identical fashion: leg-before-wicket.

Rashid was likely to face disciplinary action over the incident, a PCB official said here.

"The PCB will study the pitch report before deciding the next course of action against both Rashid and the Karachi Blues team," Shafiq Ahmed, head of the domestic cricket monitoring committee, remarked.

Rashid, meanwhile, defended his action when he said someone could have been seriously injured. "One of our batsmen got hit because of the uncertain behaviour of the Iqbal Stadium pitch. And I realized that it was in the best interest of everyone that the game be called off.

"Definitely, it was a pitch unfit for a first-class match."

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