KARACHI, Feb 6: Upcoming pace bowler Bilawal Bhatti took a five-wicket haul as Punjab had the better of the opening day’s action in the Faysal Bank Pentangular Cup fixture against reigning champions Sindh who were bowled out for a moderate 225 in their first innings at the Gaddafi Stadium here on Monday.

By stumps, the hosts had further consolidated their position by reaching 59-0 with the left-handers Nasir Jamshed (23) and Mohammad Yasin (29) safely negotiating 19 overs.

Danish Kaneria — leading Sindh in the absence of regular skipper Mohammad Sami who has gone to Bangladesh to play in a lucrative T20 event there along with several other players including his Sindh team-mates Faisal Iqbal and Fawad Alam — chose to bat first upon winning the toss. But his decision backfired as paceman Asif Raza took three of the first five wickets to fall.

None of the Sindh batsmen got going although Khurram Manzoor occupied the crease for 134 minutes for his 105-ball innings of 36, which turned out be the highest individual score of the day. The discarded Pakistan opener struck four boundaries.

Apart from Khurram, Saeed bin Nasir, recalled to the side in the forced absence of Faisal and Fawad, hit four fours in a fluent 40-ball 32, while spinner Faraz Ahmed Khan, an all-rounder of some note, contributed 30 off 60 balls with six hits to the fence.

Bilawal finished five for 58 in 20.1 overs, while Asif took 4-82 in 22 overs.

Scoreboard

SINDH (1st Innings): Shahzaib Hasan b Asif    8 Sharjeel Khan b Bilawal    7 Khurram Manzoor b Asif    36 Aqeel Anjum c Zohaib b Asif    16 Fahad Iqbal c Zohaib b Bilawal    21 Saeed bin Nasir lbw b Asif    32 Sarfraz Ahmed c Asif b Raza Hasan    18 Faraz Ahmed Khan c Haris b Bilawal    30 Tanvir Ahmed b Bilawal    22 Danish Kaneria c Zohaib b Bilawal    10 Tabish Khan not out    2 EXTRAS (B-12, LB-7, NB-4)    23 TOTAL (all out, 68.1 overs)    225 FALL OF WKTS: 1-12, 2-28, 3-66, 4-91, 5-124, 6-154, 7-166, 8-204, 9-218. BOWLING: Asif Raza 22-3-82-4 (1nb); Naseer Akram 13-2-44-0; Bilawal Bhatti 20.1-4-58-5 (3nb); Raza Hasan 13-6-22-1. PUNJAB (1st Innings): Nasir Jamshed not out    23 Mohammad Yasin not out    29 EXTRAS (LB-5, W-1, NB-1)    7 TOTAL (for no wkt, 19 overs)    59 TO BAT: Mohammad Saad, Usman Salahuddin, M. Ayub Dogar, Haris Sohail, Hafiz Mohammad Zohaib, Raza Hasan, Bilawal Bhatti, Asif Raza, Naseer Akram. BOWLING (to-date): Tanvir Ahmed 5-1-16-0 (1nb); Tabish Khan 9-0-28-0 (1w); Danish Kaneria 5-0-10-0. UMPIRES: Ahmed Shahab and Riazuddin. MATCH REFEREE: Aziz-ur-Rehman. OFFICIAL SCORER: Masood Ahmed.