KARACHI: Saad Ali led from the front with his second century of the match and Umar Waheed also reached three figures as the State Bank of Pakistan shut the doors on the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in their Patron’s Trophy Grade-II cricket tournament final in Rawalpindi on Saturday.

By stumps on the penultimate day of the four-day clash at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, State Bank extended their overnight second-innings score from 34-1 to a colossal 385-5 while holding an unassailable lead of 494 runs.

The highpoint of play was Saad’s unbeaten knock of 153 to follow the elegant left-hander’s first-innings score of 105. Umar made 115 while in two big stands as the right-hander struck 12 boundaries in his 214-ball knock.

Umar and Israrullah put on 96 for the second wicket before the latter departed for an 83-ball 42 which included four fours. Saad then partnered Umar to add 142 for the third wicket to put the match beyond the HEC’s reach.

The only happy moment of the day for the students came when their skipper Asfand Mehran dismissed Umar and Rohail Nazir (0) in the same of four deliveries.

But Saad remained unperturbed as and fellow left-hander Naved Yasin combined to share a fifth-wicket partnership that yielded 113 in 1190 minutes. Naved, who was the top scorer on day one with an undefeated 118, was run out just before stumps for 51. His 93-ball effort was embellished with six hits to the fence.

Saad has so far occupied the crease for 258 minutes during which he negotiated 190 balls and hit 21 boundaries. In the first innings Saad batted for 146 minutes.

The HEC suffered a big setback when young paceman Bilal Anwar pulled up injured after bowling just two deliveries. The brunt of the bowling was done by the spinners, Asfand and fellow slow left-armer Kamran Afzal, while strike bowler Mamoon Riaz delivered 25 overs for 111 runs. His solitary reward was the wicket of Pakistan T20 opener Sahibzada Farhan on Friday evening.

Scoreboard

STATE BANK (1st Innings) 392-6 in 83 overs (Naved Yasin 118 not out, Saad Ali 105, Sahibzada Farhan 90, Rohail Nazir 36; Mamoon Riaz 2-81).

HEC (1st Innings) 283-8 in 83 overs (Mohammad Faiq 82, Hamza Akbar 56 not out, Hammad Butt 44, Kamran Afzal 40; Israrullah 2-26, Mohammad Ilyas 2-74).

STATE BANK (2nd Innings, overnight 34-1):

Umar Waheed lbw b Asfand 115

Sahibzada Farhan c sub b Mamoon 20

Israrullah c Asfand b Kamran 42

Saad Ali not out 153

Rohail Nazir c Kamran b Asfand 0

Naved Yasin run out 51

Mohammad Nawaz not out 0

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-1, W-1, NB-1) 4

TOTAL (for five wkts, 103 overs) 385

FALL OF WKTS: 1-26, 2-122, 3-264, 4-264, 5-377.

BOWLING (to-date): Mamoon Riaz 25-1-111-1 (1w); Fahad Usman

9.4-0-33-0; Kamran Afzal 26-4-77-1 (1nb); Bilal Anwar 0.2-0-4-0; Asfand Mehran 27-3-82-2; Sajid Khan

11-2-64-0; Arsalan Zia 3-2-12-0.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2019