KARACHI, Jan 2 Sialkot had the better of the opening day's play in the RBS Pentangular Cup fixture at the National Stadium as Quaid-i-Azam Trophy champions Karachi Blues crashed to 188 all out in their first innings here on Saturday.

Sialkot were 40 without loss, with skipper Kamran Younis leading the way with 31, when poor light forced the umpires to stop play for the day 80 minutes before the scheduled stumps.

Khalid Latif, the Blues skipper, took everyone by surprise when he decided to bat first after winning the toss in conditions favouring pace bowling. In hindsight that decision killed all hopes of a decent score as the Blues lost half their side for 96 runs despite Shahzeb Hasan (22) and Khalid (14) putting on 36 for the opening stand.

Asad Shafiq, the leading run-getter in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, was trapped LBW by left-arm medium-pacer Naved Arif for an eight-ball duck. Ex-Test left-hander Asim Kamal made only 13 before paceman Bilawal Bhatti bowled him.

Among the top-order batsmen, only young left-hander Ali Asad managed to make bigger contribution as he struck six boundaries in a 78-ball 40. It was then left to wicket-keeper Javed Mansoor to provide some respectability to the final score.

Batting in a positive frame of mind, Javed hammered 10 fours in his fighting undefeated 63-ball knock of 60, mainly in the company of last man Abdul Ameer as the pair added 48 priceless runs with Ameer scoring only a single.

Medium-pacer Prince Abbas finished with 4-32 while Naved and Bilawal shared the remaining six wickets between them.

Scoreboard

KARACHI BLUES (1st Innings)

Shahzeb Hasan c Adnan b Naved 22
Khalid Latif b Bilawal 14
Asad Shafiq lbw b Naved 0
Ali Asad c Faisal b Prince 40
Asim Kamal b Bilawal 13
Shaharyar Ghani lbw b Prince 13
Tariq Haroon c Naved b Bilawal 5
Javed Mansoor not out 60
Tanvir Ahmed c sub b Naved 1
Azam Hussain b Prince 13
Abdul Ameer c Ahmed b Prince 1

EXTRAS (B-5, LB-1) 6
TOTAL (all out, 53.5 overs) 188
FALL OF WKTS 1-36, 2-36, 3-38, 4-90, 5-96, 6-109, 7-117, 8-118, 9-140.
BOWLING Naved Arif Bilawal Bhatti Prince Abbas Nabeel Malik Kamran Younis

SIALKOT (1st Innings)

Kamran Younis not out 31
Adnan Butt not out 4

EXTRAS (LB-5) 5
TOTAL (for no wkt, 6 overs) 40

TO BAT Hafiz Majid Jahangir, Mohammad Ayub Dogar, Faisal Khan, Adeel Malik, Nabeel Malik, Ahmed Butt, Naved Arif, Bilawal Bhatti, Prince Abbas.
BOWLING (to-date) Tanvir Ahmed 3-0-11-0; Tariq Haroon 3-0-24-0.

UMPIRES Ahmed Shahab and Anis-ur-Rehman.
MATCH REFEREE Mahmood Rasheed.