RAWALPINDI, Nov 24: Imran Farhat, given at least three lives, blasted 173 on Wednesday as Lahore Blues piled up a healthy first innings total in their Quaid-i-Azam Trophy match against Rawalpindi at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

At the close of third day's play, Lahore were 376 for five, Imran contributing the major share of runs, cracking 24 boundaries and a six. But Rawalpindi fielders were only themselves to blame with wicket-keeper Raja Kashif dropping the Pakistan opener off Yasir Ali when the batsman was on 27.

The hosts paid the penalty as Imran began to hit out and comfortably reached his century. But the home fielders' generosity saw no end as they provided him some more chances on the run of play.

Also doing well with the bat was Arsalan Mir who smashed a fine 63, hitting eight fours in an innings in which he faced 102 balls. The bowlers could achieve little success with only left-arm pacer Najaf Shah taking two wickets and Rao Iftikhar and Yasir Ali picking up one each.

SCOREBOARD

LAHORE BLUES (1st Innings, overnight 33-0):

Rashid Riaz c Kashif b Najaf 40

Imran Farhat lbw b Najaf 173

Rizwan Aslam b Yasir Ali 10

Shahnawaz Malik run out 10

Arsalan Mir c Kashif b Rao Iftikhar 63

Humayun Farhat not out 31

Salman Qadir not out 21

EXTRAS (LB-24, W-1, NB-3) 28

TOTAL (for five wkts, 101 overs) 376

FALL OF WKTS: 1-26, 2-158, 3-178, 4-315, 5-336.

TO BAT: Imran Tahir, Sajid Ali, Shahzad Butt, Wasim Khan.

BOWLING (to-date): Rao Iftikhar 29-5-94-1 (1w); Najaf Shah 24-5-90-2 (3nb); Yasir Arafat 15-5-44-0; Yasir Ali 22-3-67-1; Usman Saeed 1-0-8-0; Bazid Khan 5-0-25-0; Babar Naeem 5-0-24-0.

RAWALPINDI: Ashar Zaidi, Babar Naeem, Bazid Khan, Bilal Asad, Naveed Qureshi, Usman Saeed, Yasir Arafat, Rao Iftikhar, Raja Ashraf, Najaf Shah, Yasir Ali.