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Friday March 29, 2024

SNGPL stage comeback in QAT final

By Alam Zeb Safi
December 24, 2017

KARACHI: Former champions Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) staged a great come-back after initial hiccups thanks to a splendid unbeaten 120-run stand between Iftikhar Ahmed and stumper Mohammad Rizwan and reached 141-4 in 43 overs in their second innings against Wapda on the third day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy (QAT) final here at National Stadium on Saturday.

As SNGPL earlier in the day conceded a 12-run lead so they are now 129 runs ahead with six wickets in tact.

After a dreadful start when at one stage SNGPL were gasping at 21-4, test cricketer Iftikhar Ahmed (55*) and international wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan (54) applied themselves like they did in the first innings by adding a crucial unbeaten century partnership for the fifth wicket to revive their team’s chances in the game which has kept changing tides.

Iftikhar, who scored fifty in both innings, hammered eight glorious fours in his 112-ball unfinished effort. Rizwan also struck eight fours in his 111-ball unbeaten feat. Earlier the pace-duo of Mohammad Asif (2-56) and left-arm pacer Waqas Maqsood (2-21) did the damage in the first half hour play by blowing the top order of SNGPL, also featuring three test batsmen.

SNGPL lost their skipper Mohammad Hafeez in the second over when Waqas Maqsood sent him back when he was caught by Aamer Sajjad after scoring only four. The former Pakistan captain faced three balls.

And in the fifth over it was the turn of test discard Mohammad Asif who handed second blow to SNGPL by removing Azhar Ali (6) who edged a delivery that was moving away from him with stumper Kamran Akmal making no mistake in holding a comfortable catch. Azhar faced 11 balls and SNGPL were 16-2 at that stage.

In the sixth over Waqas got rid of Pakistan’s solid player Asad Shafiq (1), trapped lbw.

And in the next over Asif sent back Khurram Shehzad (9), also adjudged lbw with a delivery that came back to the right hander and struck him in front. Khurram smacked one fours in his 17-ball effort.

Earlier, in response to SNGPL’s first innings total of 259, WAPDA resumed their innings at 171-5 and were folded for 271 to take a much-needed lead. The credit of WAPDA’s achievement goes to test keeper Kamran Akmal who hammered a responsible 67 off 143 balls. Kamran, who was batting on nine on Friday, smashed seven fours and one six in his fine knock.

He added 48 valuable runs for the eighth wicket partnership with Khalid Usman who once again played a role with the bat, scoring 26 off 28 balls which had five fours.

Test pacer Mohammad Abbas was the pick of the bowlers with 4-57 in 25 overs. Left-arm pacer Samiullah Niazi got 3-67 in 27 overs. Young pacer Azizullah returned with 3-67 in 19.2 overs. WAPDA coach Zahid Umar was confident that they would restrict SNGPL to 200. “We will try to restrict them to 200,” Zahid told The News.

“The pitch is good for both the batsmen and bowlers and there is a need of such kind of pitches for the first-class cricket,” the former first-class cricketer said. Ahsan Raza and Khalid Mehmood Senior are supervising the match.