Asif, Nawaz hammer tons to earn draw for Northern

ISLAMABAD: A rearguard action saw Asif Ali and Mohammad Nawaz cracking centuries to earn a draw for Northern against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the last day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy match at Abbottabad on Tuesday.

Northern reached 33-6 in 114 overs at the end of fourth day’s play and thus avoiding defeat after being forced to follow on. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amassed 526-9 declared with Northern getting bowled out for 262 in the first innings.

Asif, a hard-hitting batsman who has represented Pakistan in white-ball cricket, scored 114 – his second century at this level. The left-handed Nawaz also played a stroke-filled innings, hammering 15 fours and 2 sixes to be unbeaten on exactly 100 that came off 126 deliveries. This was his fifth century in first-class cricket.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bowlers toiled all day without much success. Left-arm spinner Zohaib Khan finished with figures of 2-80. Irfan Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Adil Amin took one wicket each.

In the second round matches starting on September 21, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will play Sindh in Karachi and Northern will meet Central Punjab in Faisalabad.

Brief scores: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 526-9 declared in 136.4 overs (Muhammad Rizwan 176, Ashfaq Ahmed 106, Adil Amin 73, Iftikhar Ahmed 35, Fakhar Zaman 33, Sahibzada Farhan 29, Shadab Khan 4-151)

Northern 262 all out in 90.3 overs (Haider Ali 99, Imad Wasim 33, Afaq Raheem 25, Umar Amin 20, Zohaib Khan 3-21, Junaid Khan 3-40, Irfan Khan 2-69) and after follow-on 433-6 in 114 overs (Asif Ali 114, Mohammad Nawaz 100*, Umar Amin 80, Rohail Nazir 46, Sohail Tanvir 29*, Zohaib Khan 2-80).

Result - Match drawn

Points: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 15 Northern 8.