ISLAMABAD, April 18: A cracking century by Abdul Qayyum earned Essco a comfortable 77-run victory against National on Friday in the ICA-PTV Cricket Championship.

Thanks to Qayyum’s knock of 100 that was punctuated with nine fours, Essco collected 262 for nine off their 50 overs. Zafar Iqbal with 45 was the other main scorer. Abdul Rehman, who bowled to a good line and length captured five wickets for 50 runs.

But Rehman’s fine work went in vain as his side collapsed to 185 all out in 41 overs. Only Muddasar, who scored a quickfire 65, was able to stay at the crease for a good while. Shabbir Ahmed was the chief destroyer and claimed five wickets for 23 runs.

Summarised scores:

Essco bt National by 77 runs. Essco 262-9 in 50 overs (Abdul Qayyum 100, Zafar Iqbal 45; Abdul Rehman 5-50, Ghulam Muhammad 2-30);

National 185 in 41 overs (Muddassar 64, Muhammad Tahir 36; Shabbir Ahmed 5-23, Suleman 2-15).

At XI Star Ground: XI Star bt Ghouri by three wkts. Ghouri 137 in 36.3 overs (Sajid Ahmed 24; Danish Hanif 4-28, Younis Nazami 2-32);

XI Star 138-7 in 22.2 overs (Shahryar Javed 65; Sajjad Ahmed 4-37, Naveed Zaid 2-44).

At Punjab, CRA and Al-Muslim Grounds, matches between Punjab- Youngster, PTV-CDA and Margalla-All Youngstar were abandoned because of rain with two points being awarded to each team.