SINDH captain Umar Amin celebrates after completing his century against Balochistan.—INP
Iftikhar, coming into the 66th List A fixture of his career on the back of an average of 50.11, could have made more than 116 had he not fallen victim to a fine piece of fielding from Shehzad who threw down the stumps with a direct hit. The 27-year-old’s sixth century in this format off just 83 balls was embellished with nine fours and six sixes.
Iftikhar’s dismissal at 281 on the last ball of the 41st over somewhat slowed down the rate of scoring until Bilal Asif went berserk to thrash 44 from 17 balls with five fours and three sixes. Anwar took a real pasting when he was unwisely brought back into the attack at death after conceding 27 runs in his first three overs. His fourth yielded as many as 23 runs as Bilal deposited the ex-international for three sixes.
Scoreboard
SINDH:
Salman Butt c Shaheen b Nawaz 40
Umar Amin c Shehzad b Hamza 102
Iftikhar Ahmed run out 116
Fawad Alam c Khushdil b Nawaz 23
Aamir Yamin c Irfan b Shaheen 14
Khurram Shehzad c Khushdil b Anwar 11
Bilal Asif c and b Umar 44
Adnan Akmal b Umar 5
Mohammad Asghar not out 1
EXTRAS (B-4, LB-1, W-5) 10
TOTAL (for eight wkts, 50 overs) 366
FALL OF WKTS: 1-86, 2-230, 3-281, 4-294, 5-306, 6-337, 7-361, 8-366.
DID NOT BAT: Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan.
BOWLING: Umar Gul 8-0-53-2 (1w); Shaheen Shah Afridi 10-0-63-1 (2w); Anwar Ali 4-0-50-1 (1w); Mohammad Irfan Jr 10-0-65-0; Mir Hamza 8-0-59-1; Mohammad Nawaz 10-0-71-2 (1w).
BALOCHISTAN:
Bismillah Khan run out 81
Naved Malik c Iftikhar b Junaid 11
Ahmed Shehzad st Adnan b Asghar 84
Mohammad Nawaz c Aamir b Iftikhar 24
Rameez Raja c Adnan b Fawad 18
Khushdil Shah st Adnan b Asghar 25
Anwar Ali c Fawad b Junaid 58
Umar Gul not out 29
Mohammad Irfan Jr c Aamir b Irfan 13
Shaheen Shah Afridi b Junaid 0
Mir Hamza c Bilal b Junaid 0
EXTRAS (LB-6, W-5) 11
TOTAL (all out, 49.2 overs) 354
FALL OF WKTS: 1-31, 2-151, 3-202, 4-227, 5-231, 6-284, 7-331, 8-354, 9-354
BOWLING: Junaid Khan 7.2-0-55-4; Mohammad Irfan 10-0-79-1 (1w); Mohammad Asghar 10-0-69-2 (2w); Aamir Yamin 2-0-25-0; Bilal Asif 9-0-60-0; Fawad Alam 6-0-34-1 (1w); Iftikhar Ahmed 5-0-26-1 (1w).
RESULT: Sindh won by 12 runs.
UMPIRES: Ghaffar Kazmi and Zameer Haider.
TV UMPIRE: M. Sajid Afridi.
MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Anees.
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Iftikhar Ahmed.
SATURDAY’S FIXTURE: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vs Punjab (2:30pm PST).
Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2018