KARACHI, Nov 1: Usman Arshad had the distinction of scoring the first double century of the new first-class season when he struck a career-best 202 on Friday to help State Bank pile up 420 in their first innings of the President’s Trophy match against Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) at the KRL Stadium in Rawalpindi.
Usman, the 30-year-old son of former Pakistan one-day opener Arshad Pervez, added 69 to his overnight score of 133. During his marathon stay of seven hours and 23 minutes at the crease, the right-hander hit 26 fours and a brace of sixes in his 297-ball innings.
Usman’s previous best score was 183 while representing Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) against Lahore Shalimar in a Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship fixture at the LCCA Ground in October 2009. During that knock, Usman shared a mammoth fourth-wicket partnership of 479 with the future Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq who made a career-best 284 then.
Tabish Khan used the long handle to blast three sixes and as many fours in making 57 while helping Usman add 103 for the eighth wicket.
KRL, however, made a positive response by going to stumps at 140-2 with Shoaib Ahmed Minhas scoring 68.
Zeeshan Mushtaq hammered 105 (183 balls, 12 fours and two sixes) as Pakistan Television reached a healthy 301-7 in reply to Port Qasim Authority (PQA)’s 316 at the Gaddafi Stadium. Yasim Murtaza is still batting on 68.
Champions SNGPL were in real strife as ZTBL bundled them out for a measly 80 at the National Cricket Ground in Islamabad with left-arm speedster Usman Khan Shinwari grabbing four wickets for 27 runs.
Having earned a 130-run lead on the first innings, ZTBL closed at 5-0 when play ended early because of fading light.
Wapda made 174-4 after United Bank were all out for 319 at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad. Test discard Mohammad Ayub Dogar scored 50.
PIA made good progress to make 279-6 against Habib Bank when play finally got underway after a blank first day at the Marghazar Cricket Ground.
Close of play scores on Friday (day two of four):
At Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore: PQA 316 in 88 overs (Mohammad Waqas 88, Faraz Ali 69, Sohail Khan 38 not out Shahzaib Hasan 36, Khurram Manzoor 28; Mohammad Ali 5-75); PAKISTAN TELEVISION 301-7 in 68 overs (Zeeshan Mushtaq 105, Yasim Murtaza 68 not out; Mohammad Sami 2-55, Mohammad Talha 2-94).
At Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad: UNITED BANK 319 in 95 overs (Abid Ali 76, Tariq Haroon 47, Asif Raza 41; Khalid Usman 3-88); WAPDA 174-4 in 69 overs (Mohammad Ayub Dogar 50, Aamir Sajjad 30).
At KRL Stadium, Rawalpindi: STATE BANK 420 in 119.4 overs (Usman Arshad 202, Tabish Khan 57, Umair Khan 40; Sadaf Hussain 3-82); KRL 140-2 in 41 overs (Shoaib Ahmed Minhas 68).
At National Cricket Ground, Islamabad: ZTBL 210 in 61.4 overs (Haseeb-ur-Rehman 42, Haris Sohail 36; Imran Ali 5-31, Hussain Talat 3-24) and 5-0 in 2.2 overs; SNGPL 80 in 29.5 overs (Usman Khan Shinwari 4-27, M. Imran Khan 3-13, Zohaib Khan 3-30).
At Marghazar Cricket Ground, Islamabad: PIA 279-6 in 78 overs (Fahad Iqbal 52, Anop Ravi 44 not out, Faisal Iqbal 38, Anwar Ali 30 not out; Ehsan Adil 3-55, Abdul Ameer 2-48) v HABIB BANK.