Balochistan deal severe blow to Northern’s final aspirations

KARACHI: Northern’s dream of reaching their second straight Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final was badly shattered on Tuesday when the lowly-ranked Balochistan walloped last season’s runners-up by an innings and five runs here at the UBL Sports Complex.

The penultimate-round fixture was over shortly after lunch on the third day as Northern’s second innings lasted just 45 overs during which they mustered a miserable 164 all out in 187 minutes of batting. Only four of their batsmen — Sarmad Bhatti (31), Umar Amin (29), Mohammad Nawaz (27) and young Mubasir Khan (20) — crossed the 20-run mark.

Slow left-armer Kashif Bhatti returned to wicket-taking form by finishing with match bag of nine for 142 from 48 overs across both innings after picking four for 67 in 20 overs. But it was off-spinner Raza-ul-Hasan who snared the prized wicket of discarded Test left-hander Umar Amin before completing a fine return of 4-50 in 17 overs, giving him seven for 117 for the match.

Balochistan — who had just one win under belt before this game (having defeated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by 186 runs in the opening round round) — are still in the running for a place in the Jan 1-5 title-decider at the National Stadium after pocketing 25 points here to take their overall tally to 102 before they take on the out-of-sorts Sindh side at the same venue in their last-round game on Saturday. If other results go their way on Wednesday’s final day of the remaining matches, Balochistan will get a clear lifeline.

For Northern — who are still second on 114 points from nine matches — to make the final it’s just like asking them to scale the Mount Everest at this time of the year since their opponents in the last match are the in-form Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have qualified for their second final this season as the National T20 Cup winners have opened a 29-point gap as of now after adding three more through bonus points — taking their overall total to an unassailable 143 — in their ongoing clash with Central Punjab in the televised game at the National Stadium.

The leaders closed their overnight first innings 39 runs behind Central Punjab at 312-7 after Adil Amin narrowly missed out on a hundred by mere four runs. Adil’s 96 from 276 deliveries included 14 boundaries while his fourth-wicket partnership with Zohaib Khan, who scored 75 off 188 balls with the aid of eight fours, was worth 130.

The bowling honours for Central Punjab were grabbed by their teenaged all-rounder Qasim Akram as the 18-year-old claimed two more wickets with his off-spinners to end with brilliant figures of 5-51 in 19 overs in only his sixth first-class appearance.

Central Punjab then reached 89-3 in their second innings to go in front by 128 runs when stumps were drawn for the day.

Sindh, in the meantime, require nine wickets on the final day to defeat Southern Punjab at the SBP Sports Complex after the latter went to stumps at 61-1 in pursuit of a challenging 370-run chase.

Earlier Sindh captain declared his team’s second innings at 399-5. The highlight being the Saud Shakeel’s undefeated contribution of 123. The left-hander underlined his immense potential yet again by striking 16 fours during his 157-ball innings in what was his third ton of the season. It was the 10th time in 45 first-class matches that the talented batsman reached the three-figure mark

Sharjeel Khan scored 74, Asad 55 and Saad Ali 62 among other run-getters for the bottom-placed Sindh.

Close of play scores and result on Tuesday (day three of four):

First XI, ninth round:

At National Stadium, Karachi: CENTRAL PUNJAB 351-7 declared in 107.5 overs (Saad Nasim 136 not out, Mohammad Saad 78, Usman Salahuddin 53, Ali Shan 43, Qasim Akram 25; Irfanullah Shah 3-53) and 89-3 in 27 overs (Mohammad Saad 46 not out, Mohammad Akhlaq 26); KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 312-7 declared in 121.4 overs (Adil Amin 96, Zohaib Khan 75, Fakhar Zaman 42, Israrullah 40, Kamran Ghulam 20; Qasim Akram 5-51).

At UBL Sports Complex, Karachi: Balochistan beat Northern by an innings and five runs.

NORTHERN 203 in 62.1 overs (Ali Sarfraz 38, Nasir Nawaz 31, Mohammad Nawaz 26, Waqas Ahmed 26, Sarmad Bhatti 25, Mubasir Khan 25; Kashif Bhatti 5-75, Raza-ul-Hasan 3-67) and 164 in 45 overs (Sarmad Bhatti 31, Umar Amin 29, Mohammad Nawaz 27, Hammad Azam 20; Raza-ul-Hasan 4-50, Kashif Bhatti 4-67); BALOCHISTAN 372 in 116.1 overs (Akbar-ur-Rehman 82, Imran Farhat 77, Ayaz Tasawwar 69, Ali Rafiq 36, Kashif Bhatti 35, Ali Waqas 29; Nauman Ali 6-107, Waqas Ahmed 3-63).

At SBP Sports Complex, Karachi: SINDH 217 in 64.4 overs (Mohammad Hasan 111, Saad Ali 79; Aamir Yamin 3-31, Zahid Mahmood 3-49, Zia-ul-Haq 3-63) and 399-5 declared in 85 overs (Saud Shakeel 123 not out, Sharjeel Khan 74, Saad Ali 62, Asad Shafiq 55, Khurram Manzoor 29; Aamir Yamin 2-65); SOUTHERN PUNJAB 247 in 81.1 overs (Imran Rafiq 67, Zain Abbas 39, Aamir Yamin 35, Saif Badar 33; Mohammad Asghar 4-81, Shahnawaz Dhani 3-67, Tabish Khan 2-39) and 61-1 in 19 overs (Zain Abbas 28 not out, Imran Rafiq 26 not out).