Quaid-e-Azam Trophy sixth round from today

LAHORE: The sixth round of the four-day first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy commences from Monday (today). Table-toppers Central Punjab will be aiming to consolidate their position when they host Northern, who are at the bottom of the points table, at Faisalabad’s Iqbal Stadium.

Central Punjab, without the services of Pakistan Test captain Azhar Ali and young fast-bowler Naseem Shah, enter the round on the back of a thrilling draw against Sindh, in which they looked certain to come out as winners for the most part of the final day’s play.

Northern have struggled to click over the course of the tournament. However, they will take heart from a remarkable double-century by Zeeshan Malik. The 22-year-old struck 216 runs in Northern’s first innings against Southern Punjab at Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot, and registered the fourth best highest individual score this tournament. He followed it up with a second innings score of 59.

Northern will be led by Pakistan Under-19 captain Rohail Nazir as Umer Amin takes a break from the leadership role to concentrate on his batting.

Quetta’s Bugti Stadium, which saw the return of first-class cricket after 11 years this season, will be hosting its last fixture of the tournament, when Balochistan host Southern Punjab. Southern Punjab will take the field under the leadership of Sami Aslam as their regular captain Shan Masood will be taking a flight to Australia on the opening day of their sixth-round fixture.

With an added responsibility on his shoulders, Sami will be hoping to stretch his good form with the bat into this fixture after the left-handed opening-batsman scored a century against Northern.

Southern Punjab, second at the points table, is one of the two teams to have won a match. Central Punjab is the other team.

Balochistan, ranked fourth, will be hoping to fill in the vacuum which will be created by the non-availability of leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who tops the charts for most wicket with 21 scalps. The absence of Yasir is bound to increase the burden on left-arm orthodox Mohammad Asghar.

Balochistan’s Imran Butt will be on the radar of the fans after cracking a brilliant double-century in the last round. The 23-year-old scored 214 which pushed him to the second spot in the list of batsmen with the most runs this tournament.

In the third match of the round, third-ranked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be hosting fifth-ranked Sindh at Abbottabad Cricket Stadium.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s top four batsmen were among the run-getters in the previous round with captain Sahibzada Farhan, Israrullah, and Ashfaq Ahmed, who has the most runs this tournament, scoring half-centuries, and Adil Amin hitting a gutsy century.

Sindh will be wary of off-spinner Sajid Khan, who took eight wickets, including a five for 36 in the second innings, against Balochistan.

Sindh must have run down the best possible back-up options ahead of the sixth round after Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq and Kashif Bhatti left the side for the national duty.

All three matches will begin at 10am.