KARACHI: Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) came back to winning ways on Friday after their record-breaking loss against Pakistan Television (PTV) in the fifth round, bagging a 53-run win over Khan Research Laboratories (KR) at the KCCA Stadium in Karachi.
The seventh round of the tournament begins on Monday across four venues in Karachi as eight teams will be in action with top four vying for the two final spots.
With this win, SNGPL now sit joint-atop the eight-team points table with Wapda as both teams have 114 points each from six games, winning four. Both the teams are well in contention for making it to the five-day final despite second-placed KRL’s 97 points.
KRL will be looking to spoil their plans if they get a substantial win in their last round match against Ghani Glass after going down in the penultimate round.
Meanwhile, SNGPL will face seventh-placed Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and Wapda will be up against resurgent State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), who jumped from sixth to fourth with an innings win in the sixth round.
On Friday, KRL were faced with the daunting task of overhauling the remaining 120 runs of the 234-run target with four wickets left, for a win, or bat out the day in order to save the game against a bowling line-up comprising Test pacer Mohammad Ali and Test spinner Sajid Khan.
SNGPL took 25.1 overs to take the remaining four wickets as KRL skipper Iftikhar Ahmed and Hamza Nazar resisted with a 56-run seventh-wicket stand on both ends of the stumps. Iftikhar faced 176 balls for his 63 but eventually fell victim to Ali, the player of the match, who trapped him in front of the wicket.
Hamza fell for 32 off 76 balls, while the nos. 9, 10 and 11 only faced a combined total of 41 balls before SNGPL recorded the victory. Apart from Ali’s 4-42 in 20.1 overs, left-arm spinner Mohammad Irfan picked up three for 24 while Sajid claimed two.
Scores in brief:
SNGPL beat KRL by 53 runs at the KCCA Stadium.
SNGPL 199 in 61.3 overs (Mubasir Khan 38, Mohammad Awais Zafar 38, Abid Ali 24, Aamir Jamal 23, Shan Masood 22, Mohammad Irfan 20 not out, Hamza Nazar 3-40, Mohammad Hamza 2-45, Iftikhar Ahmed 2-53) and 209 in 93.5 overs (Abid Ali 53, Azan Awais 34, Aamir Jamal 26; Mohammad Hamza 6-40, Sufyan Moqim 3-47)
KRL 175 in 61.4 overs (Shahzaib Khan 36, Sufyan Moqim 33, Sarmad Bhatti 30; Shehzad Gul 5-38, Sajid Khan 2-51) and 180 in 71.1 overs (Iftikhar Ahmed 63, Saad Baig 52, Hamza Nazar 32; Mohammad Ali 4-42, Mohammad Irfan 3-24, Sajid Khan 2-39).
Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2026