KARACHI, Feb 8: Balochistan finally ended their winless run in the Faysal Bank Pentangular Cup when they eased to a 149-run victory over Federal Areas on the penultimate day of the four-day fixture at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
Federal Areas, chasing 271, plummeted to 121 all out in their second innings in another poor display of batting. Left-arm seamer Rahat Ali was the star of the show with figures of five for 36.
Slow left-armer Ahmed Raza and gangling paceman Mohammad Irfan chipped in with two wickets.
Federal Areas — who had more experienced players than Balochistan — collectively faced just 71.5 overs over their two innings with none of the batsmen reaching even 40 in either innings.
Gulraiz Sadaf also had a memorable game behind the stumps for Balochistan. The wicket-keeper finished with 10 dismissals, including four catches and a stumping in the second innings.
Balochistan, who were crushed by innings by both Sindh and Punjab, had earlier posted 226 in their second innings after starting the day 138-4. The left-handed Naved Yasin returned to form with an unbeaten 70 off exactly 100 balls. His knock was laced with nine boundaries.
Federal Areas captain and former Pakistan seamer Rao Iftikhar grabbed fine analysis of 6-43 in the second innings to end up with match haul of 10 for 76.
ScoreboardBALOCHISTAN (1st Innings) 229 (Rehan Rafiq 66, Gulraiz Sadaf 60; Rao Iftikhar 4-60, Sadaf Hussain 4-66).
FEDERAL AREAS (1st innings) 185 (Awais Zia 39, Afaq Raheem 38, Babar Naeem 37; Rizwan Haider 5-35, Ahmed Raza 3-46, Mohammad Irfan 2-56).
BALOCHISTAN (2nd Innings, overnight 138-4):Bismillah Khan b Rao Iftikhar 15Zain Abbas b Rao Iftikhar 3Saeed Anwar Jr c Awais b Saad 79Rehan Rafiq b Rao Iftikhar 0Taimur Ali absent ill 34Naved Yasin not out 70Gulraiz Sadaf c Jamal b Sadaf 12Rizwan Haider c Jamal b Hammad 6Ahmed Raza c Afaq b Rao Iftikhar 5Mohammad Irfan c Jamal b Rao Iftikhar 0Rahat Ali b Rao Iftikhar 0
EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1) 2TOTAL (all out, 60 overs) 226FALL OF WKTS: 1-16, 2-39, 3-55, 4-109, 5-158, 6-187, 7-210, 8-218, 9-226.BOWLING: Rao Iftikhar 16-6-43-6; Sadaf Hussain 14-4-52-1; Hammad Azam 15-2-57-0 (1w); Saad Altaf 9-1-44-1; Awais Zia 3-1-7-0; Babar Naeem 3-0-22-0.
FEDERAL AREAS (2nd Innings):Umair Khan c Gulraiz b Irfan 27Afaq Raheem c Gulraiz b Rizwan 6Shan Masood c Gulraiz b Irfan 1Umar Amin b Rahat 9Awais Zia c Rizwan b Rahat 0Babar Naeem c Rehan b Rahat 2Hammad Azam c Gulraiz b Rahat 18Jamal Anwar c sub b Ahmed 27Rao Iftikhar st Gulraiz b Ahmed 19Sadaf Hussain b Rahat 4Saad Altaf not out 4
EXTRAS (LB-2, NB-2) 4TOTAL (all out, 30.4 overs) 121FALL OF WKTS: 1-28, 2-29, 3-41, 4-43, 5-51, 6-66, 7-73, 8-112, 9-117.BOWLING: Mohammad Irfan 9-1-31-2 (2nb); Rizwan Haider 9-0-39-1; Ahmed Raza 3.4-1-5-2; Rahat Ali 8-1-36-5; Saeed Anwar Jr 1-0-8-0.
RESULT: Balochistan won by 149 runs.UMPIRES: Kamal Merchant and Rasheed Bhatti.MATCH REFEREE: Musaddeq Rasool Khan.OFFICIAL SCORER: Zulfiqar Ali.