Faisalabad to face Multan in QT Grade II final

KARACHI: Faisalabad and Multan blasted their way into the final of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Grade-II, beating Sialkot and Hyderabad, respectively, in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Faisalabad made a strong comeback and defeated Sialkot by 32 runs, while Multan whipped Hyderabad by 143 runs.

Sialkot, who had gained 87 runs lead, failed to bat with confidence and perished for only 137 in 48 overs while chasing 170 runs target here at National Stadium.

Naeemuddin (34) and Mansoor Amjad (29) were the prominent contributors.

Rookie left-arm spinner Ahmed Safi once again showed his temperament and grabbed 4-47, for a match-haul of 8-76.

He was backed by Test discard Ehsan Adil (3-28) and left-arm paceman Samiullah Niazi (3-25). Both of these bowlers bowled with great variation in what was a fighting game.

Faisalabad, who had conceded an 87-run lead, resumed their second innings at 116-3 and were bowled out for 256 in 57.4 overs.

Ali Rafiq carried the whole batting burden on his shoulders, scoring 103 off 181 balls with 12 hits to the fence.

Experienced all-rounder Khurram Shehzad backed him with a fluent 45-ball 52, which featured six fours and one six.

Ali Shan made 30 off 24 balls, striking five fours.

Left-arm Test spinner Abdul Rehman once again bowled superbly, taking 7-98, while seamer Mohammad Abbas got 2-63, for a game-haul of 9-103.

Faisalabad scored 125 all out in their first innings. In response, Sialkot scored 212 in 72.1 overs.

Khalid Mahmood Senior and Rashid Riaz supervised the match, while Ahmed Saeed served as referee and Salman Hussain as scorer.

In the other semi-final, at Multan Cricket Stadium, chasing a stiff target of 332, Hyderabad were skittled out for only 188.

Haris Khan belted unbeaten 62, for which he faced 133 balls, hitting eight fours.

Rizwan Ahmed belted 40 off 63 balls with three fours.

Mohammad Awais made 30 with two sixes and two fours.

Left-arm international spinner Zulfiqar Babar got 5-68. Ali Usman and Sohaib Maqsood got two wickets each.

Multan, who had a 110-run lead, resumed their second innings at 157-4 and were bowled out for 221. Sohaib Maqsood scored 81, which came off 106 balls and had eight fours.

Imran Rafiq hit 30 with three fours.

Spinner Nauman Ali got 5-46, for match-figures of 11-102. Spinner Nasir Awais got 4-85, for figures of 7-201 in the match.

Multan posted 260 all out in their first innings.

In response, Hyderabad made 150 all out.

Qaiser Waheed and Muhammad Sajid supervised the match, while Wasim Yousafi was the referee and Muhammad Akbar the scorer.