KARACHI: Umar Akmal narrowly missed out on a second straight century as Balochistan made it two victories on the trot in the Pakistan Cup in Rawalpindi on Thursday as Sindh succumbed to a demoralising 72-run defeat at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.

Taking advantage of a batting paradise, Balochistan posted a mammoth 346-9 while considerably brightening up an otherwise dull, cloudy day in the garrison city.

Faced with a daunting chase under lights, Sindh needed a couple of the batters to score big runs but their cause was not helped by the loss of wickets in two major clusters.

Upfront, Umar Siddique had kept Sindh afloat as the pugnacious wicket-keeper who bats left-handed struck a blazing 88 when his 64-ball innings, containing 12 boundaries and two sixes, was terminated by a brilliant piece of fielding from Fawad Alam who threw down the stumps in flash from short point.

Umar and Ahsan Ali (42 off 47 balls, four fours and a six) had revived Sindh’s hopes by putting on 92 for the second wicket after Sahibzada Farhan (19) had fallen to Haris Rauf with the score on 57.

At this point, Ahsan was a victim of a spectacular catch by a diving Haris off man-of-the-match Amad Butt. Sindh then suffered more miseries as three quick wickets went down for the addition of only 15 runs.

Umar Amin and Aamir Yamin then combined together to rekindle fresh hopes in the Sindh camp as the pair stitched a fine partnership of 93 before the innings went into a swift decline as the last five wickets fell for just 17 runs.

Amad ended up taking three wickets for 58 runs, Mohammad Irfan two for 58 and the young spinner Umar Khan 1-37 in nine excellent overs.

Earlier, Balochistan’s innings was once again dominated by Umar Akmal who has missed out in the list of 23 World Cup probables named by the PCB after the temperamental right-hander had bludgeoned a hurricane 99 from just 66 deliveries.

The 28-year-old Umar, who had struck a career-best 136 not out against Punjab on Tuesday’s opening day of the competition, hammered six sixes and seven fours after arriving at the fall of skipper Asad Shafiq while narrowly being denied a seventh List A century when he was bowed by left-arm paceman Rahat Ali at the state of the 47th over.

Put into bat by Umar Gul, Balochistan lost Awais Zia for 13 when the left-hander was undone by off-spinner Ashiq Ali. But fellow left-handed opener Zeeshan Ashraf timed the ball sweetly to strike nine boundaries and a six on his way to a run-a-ball innings of 75.

Zeeshan and Asad — who contributed 53 from 47 balls with the aid of four fours and a brace of sixes — batted briskly to add exactly 100 for the second wicket before both were dismissed by slow left-armer Nauman Ali, the only Sindh bowler to complete his full quota as he finished with two for 59.

After Umar Akmal’s departure, all-rounder Amad Butt took the centre stage by producing an astonishing innings of 42 from mere 18 deliveries while thrashing five fours and three sixes.

Scoreboard

BALOCHISTAN:

Awais Zia b Ashiq 13
Zeeshan Ashraf c U. Siddique b Nauman 75
Asad Shafiq lbw b Nauman 53
Umar Akmal b Rahat 99
Fawad Alam c Asif b Umar Gul 24
Ali Imran c Aamir b Hammad 9
Bismillah Khan run out 14
Amad Butt not out 42
Umar Khan run out 0
Haris Rauf c Ashiq b Hammad 1
Mohammad Irfan not out 1

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-11, NB-1) 15

TOTAL (for nine wkts, 50 overs) 346

FALL OF WKTS: 1-42, 2-142, 3-153, 4-211, 5-241, 6-301, 7-301, 8-309, 9-338.

BOWLING: Umar Gul 8-0-52-1 (4w); Rahat Ali 9-1-71-1 (1nb, 2w); Ashiq Ali 8-0-57-1 (1w); Aamir Yamin 8-0-68-0 (4w); Nauman Ali 10-0-59-2; Hammad Azam 7-0-36-2.

SINDH:

Umar Siddique run out 88
Sahibzada Farhan c Awais b Haris 18
Ahsan Ali c Haris b Amad 42
Umar Amin c Ali Imran b Irfan 60
Asif Ali c U. Khan b Amad 5
Hammad Azam c Asad b Fawad 0
Aamir Yamin c Asad b U. Khan 46
Nauman Ali c Bismillah b Amad 0
Ashiq Ali c Bismillah b Irfan 2
Umar Gul run out 1
Rahat Ali not out 0

EXTRAS (lb-4, w-7) 11

TOTAL (all out, 44.2 overs) 274

FALL OF WKTS: 1-57, 2-149, 3-157, 4-163, 5-164, 6-257, 7-259, 8-264, 9-267.

BOWLING: Mohammad Irfan 8.2-0-58-2; Haris Rauf 8-0-52-1 (2w); Umar Khan 9-0-37-1 (2w); Ali Imran 4-0-29-0; Amad Butt 10-1-58-3 (3w); Fawad Alam 4-0-28-1; Asad Shafiq 1-0-8-0.

RESULT: Balochistan won by 72 runs.

UMPIRES: Asif Yaqoob and Tahir Rashid.

TV UMPIRE: Waleed Yaqub.

MATCH REFEREE: Aziz-ur-Rehman.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Amad Butt.

FRIDAY’S FIXTURE: Punjab vs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (2:00pm PST).

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2019