Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2010.
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), who returned to first-class cricket after a gap of 27 years, won the truncated Division Two final of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship after bowling out favourites Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) for 149 on Thursday.

The result, decided on the basis of lead on the first innings, ensured the bankers will play in Division One next season thanks to paceman Mohammad Naved's heroics.

The five-day fixture was scheduled to conclude on Tuesday but bad weather in the Punjab region — and Tuesday's assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer — reduced the match to a farce at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

Naved, the 22-year-old right-armer from Lahore, was the star performer with excellent figures of seven for 61 as KRL were all out for 159 in reply to SBP's first-innings total of 303.

KRL lost eight wickets for 85 runs on Thursday after starting their badly interrupted innings at 74-2.

Yasir Arafat was declared the recipient of the Rs50,000 Man-of-the-Match award for his nine-wicket haul in SBP innings. Individual prizes of the same amount were won by Lahore Shalimar's Usman Salahuddin for being the best batsman after amassing 927 runs in Division Two, PTV's Yasim Murtaza won the best fielder award for holding 14 catches.

The best wicket-keeper prize went to Lahore Shalimar's Kashif Mahmood for his 53 dismissals (49 catches and four stumpings) while the bowler's award was shared by Karachi Whites' Sohail Khan and Saad Altaf of PTV after both pacemen claimed 50 wickets each.

SBP skipper Kashif Siddique collected the winners' cash award of Rs500,000 while a disappointed KRL captain Mohammad Wasim received Rs250,000 on behalf of his team.

Scoreboard

STATE BANK (1st Innings) 303 (Naved Yasin 77, Shoaib Khan 76, Jalat Khan 45, Afsar Nawaz 31; Yasir Arafat 9-108). KRL (1st Innings, overnight 74-2): Saeed Anwar Jr b Naved 7 Ali Naqvi c Gulraiz b Rizwan 54 Zulfiqar Jan b Rameez 30 Mohammad Wasim b Naved 8 M. Idrees c Gulraiz b Naved 1 Bilal Asad c Gulraiz b Naved 13 Ali Khan c Rizwan b Naved 15 Yasir Arafat b Naved 4 Shakeel-ur-Rehman c Gulraiz b Rizwan 0

Mohammad Irfan not out 12 Rahat Ali c Gulraiz b Naved 6 EXTRAS (LB-2, NB-7) 9 TOTAL (all out, 49.5 overs) 159 FALL OF WKTS: 1-7, 2-62, 3-74, 4-76, 5-122, 6-122, 7-128, 8-133, 9-141. BOWLING: Mohammad Rameez 18-6-60-1 (4nb); Mohammad Naved 19.5-6-61-7 (1nb); Rizwan Haider 12-2-36-2 (2nb). RESULT: Match drawn; State Bank win on first innings lead. UMPIRES: Saleem Badar and Ahsan Raza. MATCH REFEREE: Khateeb Rizwan. MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Yasir Arafat.

Opinion

Editorial

Digital growth
Updated 25 Apr, 2024

Digital growth

Democratising digital development will catalyse a rapid, if not immediate, improvement in human development indicators for the underserved segments of the Pakistani citizenry.
Nikah rights
25 Apr, 2024

Nikah rights

THE Supreme Court recently delivered a judgement championing the rights of women within a marriage. The ruling...
Campus crackdowns
25 Apr, 2024

Campus crackdowns

WHILE most Western governments have either been gladly facilitating Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, or meekly...
Ties with Tehran
Updated 24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

Tomorrow, if ties between Washington and Beijing nosedive, and the US asks Pakistan to reconsider CPEC, will we comply?
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...