KARACHI, Oct 18: Veteran leg-spinner Riaz Shaikh produced the best bowling figures in the PCB Senior Inter-district Cricket Tournament on Saturday when he claimed eight for 118 as KCCA Zone-V drew their match against Zone-IV at the Landhi Gymkhana Ground.
As in all previous two-day games of this virtually worthless event, the remaining two matches also failed to produce conclusive results.
The 34-year-old Riaz’s extraordinary 35-over feat, however, was enough to give three first innings points to Zone-V, who gained a slender lead of 13 runs after Zone-IV were bowled out for 236 in 71.3 overs.
Zone-V then utilised the remainder of the day to make 128 for one in their second innings thanks to fine batting by Gohar Ali (62) and Mohammad Shahid (56) who shared an unbroken second-wicket partnership of 109.
Zone-III, meanwhile emerged as unofficial champions as they finished top in the final standings of the Karachi region event with 15 points.
Zone-VII mustered just 131 in 48.3 overs in their first innings in reply to Zone-III’s 289 at the Asifabad Sports Ground. The star here was another seasoned campaigner Jaffar Qureshi. The 34-year-old slow left-armer snared six wickets for only 27 runs in 24 overs of which 14 were maidens.
Mansoor Ahmed, better known in local circles an exponent of leg-spin, top-scored for Zone-VII with a fighting 60 off 81 deliveries after coming to the crease at 37 for five.
Opener Zahid Ghauri proceeded to blast a hurricane 50 off only 25 balls as Zone-III reached 81 for one in the second innings.
Zone-VI also claimed three points after taking a substantial lead of 157 runs over Zone-II at the TMC Ground. Zone-II managed 155 in response to their opponents’s first innings score of 312 with Saeed bin Nasir contributing 45.
Zone-VI were 89 for two in the second innings as the match petered out in a listless draw.
Summarised scores:
*At Asifabad Sports Ground, match drawn:
ZONE-III 289 in 71.4 overs (Tariq Rasheed 72, Suleman Khan 62, Mohammad Imran 38, Naeem Tariq 37; Mansoor Ahmed 4-60, Sharif Asadullah 3-60, Raheel Waris 2-61) and 81-1 in 12 overs (Zahid Ghauri 50, Javed Mansoor 20 not out);
ZONE-VII 131 in 48.3 overs (Mansoor Ahmed 60; Jaffar Qureshi 6-27, Aleem Musa 3-74).
*At TMC Ground, match drawn:
ZONE-VI 312 in 88.3 overs (Naeem Khan 46, Kamran bin Mansoor 44 not out, Imran Javed 44, Ashfaq Shafi 40, Fahad Anjum 33, Mirza Adnan Baig 28, Faraz Ahmed 22; Wajahat Farooqui 4-58, Ghulam Qadir 4-76) and 89-2 in 27 overs (Naeem Khan 32, Fahad Anjum 26 not out);
ZONE-II 155 in 56.2 overs (Saeed bin Nasir 45; Rizwan Qureshi 3-27, Tariq Haroon 3-41, Irfanuddin 2-42).
*At Landhi Gymkhana Ground, match drawn:
ZONE-V 249 in 90 overs (Mohammad Masroor 106, Sajid Qureshi 28, Gohar Ali 26; Fawad Alam 4-44, Azam Hussain 3-81, Mohammad Nadeem 2-37) and 128-1 in 25 overs (Gohar Ali 62 not out, Mohammad Shahid 56 not out);
ZONE-IV 236 in 71.3 overs (Tasawwar Abbas 52, Fawad Alam 44, Khurram Manzoor 42, Afsar Nawaz 41, Mohammad Bilal 23; Riaz Shaikh 8-118).
(Tabulated under played, won, lost, drawn, points):
KCCA ZONE-III 6 0 0 6 15
KCCA ZONE-I 6 0 0 6 12
KCCA ZONE-IV 6 0 0 6 9
KCCA ZONE-VI 6 0 0 6 9
KCCA ZONE-V 6 0 0 6 9
KCCA ZONE-II 6 0 0 6 6
KCCA ZONE-VII 6 0 0 6 3