Abid, Sami make it count with career-best double tons
KARACHI: Opening batsmen Abid Ali and Sami Aslam sent emphatic reminders to Pakistan head coach-cum-chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq on Sunday with career-best unbeaten double centuries on day two of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy first-class matches.
With the probables for the upcoming One-day International series against Sri Lanka to be named on Thursday, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa skipper Mohammad Rizwan also weighed in with a big century as bowlers struggled found the going tough with the Turf named of Kookaburra brand balls. With play at exactly halfway stage in this opening round, already there have been six individual centuries recorded in the scorebooks, with more on the cards as the likes of Babar Azam, Azhar Ali, Haris Sohail and Umar Akmal all waiting for their opportunities over the remaining two days.
Abid, who was initially picked in Pakistan’s 15-man squad for the World Cup but then abruptly sidelined following his debut ODI ton against Australia in March, exhibited great powers of concentration and stamina here at the UBL Sports Complex.
The 31-year-old right-hander from Lahore batted all through 712 minutes of Sindh’s first innings to finish on 249 when their skipper Sarfraz Ahmed declared at 473-5 in the second hour of the final session. In the remaining time available, Imam-ul-Haq and Azeem Ghumman safely negotiated eight overs to carry Balochistan to 16-0 at close of play.
Resuming at 237-2 with Abid on 120, Sindh once again refrained from taking an adventurous route to enhance the painstaking rate of scoring, which was a pedestrian 2.78 despite the Balochistan bowlers toiling through 169.5 overs without much luck.
Abid was reprieved several times but still kept his composure as he surpassed his previous highest first-class score of 231 not out for Islamabad against National Bank at the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad two season ago. By the time he headed back, Abid had faced an incredible 572 deliveries, and of which 26 were struck for boundaries.
Unperturbed by events at other end, Abid almost seemed unmovable as he watched Asad Shafiq leave the field early in the morning at 251-2 because of stiffness in the neck. The Test batsman, however, came back to add 29 to his score of eight.
Sarfraz also spent invaluable time at the crease as the Pakistan captain contributed a 78-ball 44 (three fours) in the unbroken partnership of 97 with Abid.
Yasir Shah, the Test leg-spinner, delivered another 16 overs — in which he scalped former Pakistan left-hander Fawad Alam (18) — before finishing with unflattering analysis of 3-127 from 47 overs.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in contrast, adopted an entertaining approach against Northern as they extended their Saturday’s tally of 343-4 to 526-9 declared in 136.4 overs at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium in Abbottabad.