LAHORE, Oct 9: Pacemen Azhar Abbas and Abdur Rauf shared eight wickets to help Sui Gas restrict defending champions Pakistan Customs to 204 on opening day of the Patron’s Trophy Grade-I match at Gaddafi Stadium Tuesday.
However, Customs hit back immediately to reduce Sui Gas to nine for two at stumps with both openers Ali Hussain (3) and Mohammad Hafeez (4) gone.
Put into bat first by the Sui Gas skipper Asad Iqbal, Customs made a poor start as they lost openers with 19 on the board, including the prized wicket of the in-form Shadab Kabir for a duck in the very first over.
Imran Mohammad and Asim Kamal retrieved the position to a large extent by putting on 64 in 88 minutes for the third wicket. Imran, son of ex-Test opening batsman Sadiq Mohammad who is incidentally standing in this game as an umpire, scored 42 off 6 balls with three boundaries while the left-handed Asim Kamal contributed 39 off 106 balls with six fours.
Customs captain Aamir Bashir (31 off 119 balls, five fours) and Tariq Haroon (24) were the only other batsmen to cross 20.
Abdur Rauf, who captured 14 wickets in the defeat against ADBP last week, sent down 22.1 overs to claim four for 57. He was forced to leave the ground with some of injury. Azhar Abbas bowled 21 overs to take four for 50. Sui Gas skipper Mohammad Hussain picked two for 27.
PAKISTAN CUSTOMS (1st Innings):
Shadab Kabir c Abid b Abdur Rauf 0
Kashif Siddique c and b Azhar 8
Imran Mohammad lbw b Abdur Rauf 42
Asim Kamal c A. Hussain b Azhar 39
Aamir Bashir c Abid b Abdur Rauf 31
Azhar Shafiq c A. Hussain b M. Hussain 4
Tariq Haroon c A. Hussain b Abdur Rauf 24
Aamir Iqbal c Abid b Azhar 3
Waqar Ahmed c Abid b Azhar 19
Nadeem Javed not out 6
Waqas Chughtai c Azhar b M. Hussain 11
EXTRAS (B-8, LB-5, NB-4) 17
TOTAL (all out, 79 overs) 204
FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-19, 3-83, 4-103, 5-115, 6-155, 7-160, 8-160, 9-185.
BOWLING: Abdur Rauf 22.1-5-57-4; Azhar Abbas 21-5-50-4 (4nb); Imran Tahir 14-3-41-0; Asad Iqbal 3-0-12-0; Mohammad Hussain 16-7-27-2; Mohammad Hafeez 2.5.1-4-0.
SUI GAS (1st Innings):
Ali Hussain lbw b Waqas 3
Mohammad Hafeez lbw b Waqar 4
Fareed Butt not out 0
EXTRAS (W-2) 2
TOTAL (for two wkts, 4.5 overs) 9
FALL OF WKTS: 1-4, 2-9.
TO BAT: Sohail Idrees, Faisal Athar, Mohammad Hussain, Asad Iqbal, Abid Mahmood, Abdur Rauf, Imran Tahir, Azhar Abbas.
BOWLING (to-date): Waqar Ahmed 2.5-0-9-1 (2w); Waqas Chughtai 2-2-0-1.
UMPIRES: Shakeel Khan and Sadiq Mohammad.
MATCH REFEREE: Ashraf Ali.