Karachi Blues crushed Hyderabad by 114 runs on Sunday at the Mirpur Cricket Stadium in Mirpur to start their Group ‘B’ in the Super Eight campaign of the Faysal Bank Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship on a victorious note. Hyderabad, chasing a daunting target of 394, were all out for 279 after having resumed their second innings at the overnight total of 164-4. All-rounder Lal Kumar scored a fighting 41 (95 balls, five boundaries) to go with his eight wickets in the match. Veteran batsman Faisal Athar, who donned the wicket-keeping gloves in this game, made 29 while adding 50 for the sixth wicket with Lal Kumar. The Blues’ all-rounder Akbar-ur-Rehman followed his century in the second innings with the wickets of Lal Kumar and Nauman Ali for just two runs in his two overs of military medium bowling. To add to Hyderabad’s woes, last man Rehan Riaz was unable to bat in the second innings with an undisclosed physical problem. Lahore Shalimar were the other winners in Group ‘B’ by virtue of their 10-wicket thrashing of Lahore Ravi at the LCCA Ground in Lahore on Saturday. Both Lahore Shalimar and Karachi Blues have nine points. Sialkot, meanwhile, claimed three points after Karachi Whites totalled 238 in reply to 254 made by the former in their first innings of the rain-hit Group ‘A’ drawn fixture at the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad. The Whites began the last day of the four-day tie at 137-4 before losing their remaining for the addition of only 74 runs after being 164-4 at one stage. Mohtashim Ali was the top run-getter with 69. Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik took three of those wickets with his off-spinners. He finished with three for 50, while all-rounder Nayyar Abbas, who bowls slow left-armers, claimed one more wicket to end up 4-79.Sialkot then reached 184-3 in the second innings with opener Hafiz Majid Jahangir making an undefeated 101 (146 balls, 12 fours), while Malik struck 40 in the unbroken partnership of 82 with Majid. Rawalpindi on Saturday also had to settle for three points after drawing with Islamabad in the other Group ‘A’ game at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi. Scores and results on Sunday (final day of four):
Super Eight:
At Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad: Match drawn. SIALKOT 254 in 92 overs (Hafiz Majid Jahangir 57, Shoaib Malik 50, Zeeshan Mushtaq 44, Mohammad Ayub Dogar 41; Atif Maqbool 6-119, Mohammad Ali 2-85) and 184-3 in 45 overs (Hafiz Majid Jahangir 101 not out, Shoaib Malik 40 not out, Mohammad Ayub Dogar 27); KARACHI WHITES 238 in 80 overs (Mohtashim Ali 69, Shahzaib Hasan 50, Atif Maqbool 29 not out; Nayyar Abbas 4-79, Shoaib Malik 3-62, Ali Khan 2-11). At Mirpur Cricket Stadium, Mirpur: Karachi Blues beat Hyderabad by 114 runs. KARACHI BLUES 205 in 80.4 overs (Khurram Manzoor 62, Tabish Khan 41, Tariq Haroon 34; Lal Kumar 5-49, Nauman Ali 2-46, Nasir Awais 2-50) and 329 in 77.5 overs (Akbar-ur-Rehman 161, Tabish Khan 53, Anwar Ali 33’ Rehan Riaz 3-80, Lal Kumar 3-80, Nasir Awais 2-53); HYDERABAD 141 in 36 overs (Rizwan Ahmed 48, Lal Kumar 26; Tariq Haroon 4-24, Anwar Ali 3-27, Tabish Khan 2-43) and 279 in 74.4 overs (Sharjeel Khan 101, Lal Kumar 41, Ghulam Yasin 37, Faisal Athar 29; Akbar-ur-Rehman 2-2, Rumman Raees Khan 2-39, Tabish Khan 2-62, Tariq Haroon 2-65).