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KARACHI: Excellent centuries from Imran Rafiq and Agha Salman considerably raised hopes of Southern Punjab qualifying for the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after they sealed a crucial five-wicket victory over the bottom-placed Sindh here on Wednesday.
The result of the penultimate-round fixture at the SBP Sports Complex also dethroned Central Punjab — who were the champions in the inaugural season of the revamped first-class championship — after the televised game at the National Stadium versus Khyber Pakhtunkhwa petered out in a listless draw.
The 22 points Southern Punjab collected for their fourth triumph in the current event catapulted into second spot with a total of 128 — 20 points behind runaway leaders Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — after they managed to chase down the remaining 309 runs against a toothless Sindh bowling attack on the final day.
Southern Punjab hardly put a foot wrong after resuming at 61-1 in pursuit of a challenging 370-run target on a fourth-day pitch. But the ineptness of the Sindh bowlers aided them immensely as slow left-armer Mohammad Asghar failed to take any wicket. The only man to bowl his hearts out was the old warhorse Tabish Khan who finished with three for 95 with fellow pacemen Mir Hamza and Shahnawaz Dhani sharing the other two wickets.
Opener Zain Abbas (81 off 128 balls, nine boundaries) laid a good foundation while putting on 137 for the second with fellow left-hander Imran Rafiq, who then further traumatised Sindh by sharing a fourth-wicket partnership of 141 with Salman.
Tabish grabbed two wickets in the space of eight runs when he had Zain and Saif Badar (1) both caught by Mohammad Hasan. But Sindh were unable to dislodge Imran and Salman soon enough to stem the flow of runs.
Imran, the 24-year-old from Dera Ghazi Khan, registered his fourth first-class century before being dismissed by Shahnawaz for a magnificent 130. His 254-ball knock was embellished with 12 fours and a brace of sixes.
Salman departed when Southern Punjab were just 27 runs away from the victory after notching up his second hundred in the championship and eighth at the first-class level. The 27-year-old right-hander from Lahore made exactly 100 from only 112 deliveries until he was caught by the beleaguered Sindh skipper Asad Shafiq off Tabish. Salman struck 14 fours and two sixes.
Mohammad Umair had the satisfaction of seeing his side get over the line by striking three sixes and as many fours in a 38-ball unbeaten contribution of 36.
In contrast to the events at the SBP Sports Complex, the action at the National Stadium was a complete farce as Central Punjab batted themselves into a position of safety rather than leave the door ajar with an early declaration. Captain Hasan Ali waited deep into the second session before finally applying the closure to Central Punjab’s second innings at 265-7.
The only worthwhile performance was the 18-year-old Qasim Akram reaching his maiden half-century in first-class cricket. Following his best-ever bowling of 5-51 in an innings on Tuesday, the teenaged right-hander hit up 79 from 181 balls with the aid of six fours and a six.
Other than Qasim, Mohammad Saad scored 83 to follow his 78 in the first innings, while Saad Nasim backed his undefeated 136 here by contributing 54.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa comfortably batted through 21 overs to close at 65-2. The high drama of their second innings was the first-ball of Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman when he didn’t cover the line of the Hasan Ali delivery and the very small gap between bat and pad saw the ball crashing into the stumps.
The other match that concluded in less than three days of playing time at the UBL Sports Complex on Tuesday, Balochistan thumped last year’s runners-up Northern by innings and five runs.
The 10th and final round of preliminary-round fixtures gets underway from Saturday.
Scores and results on Wednesday (final day of four):
First XI, ninth round:
At National Stadium, Karachi: Match drawn.
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 265-7 declared in 82 overs (Mohammad Saad 83, Qasim Akram 79, Saad Nasim 54, Mohammad Akhlaq 26; Khalid Usman 2-29, Sajid Khan 2-90); 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) and 65-2 in 21 overs (Israrullah 31 not out).
At SBP Sports Complex, Karachi: Southern Punjab beat Sindh by five wickets.
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 370-5 in 93.4 overs (Imran Rafiq 130, Agha Salman 100, Zain Abbas 81, Mohammad Umair 36 not out; Tabish Khan 3-95).