Nauman Ali leads Northern to first win

KARACHI: Nauman Ali took four wickets to lead Northern to their first win in Quaid-e-Azam Trophy as Sindh were bowled out for 199 runs in their second innings to suffer a heavy 145-run defeat on an exciting fourth and final day’s play of the seventh round match at the National Stadium, Karachi, on Thursday.

Set a difficult victory target of 345 runs, Sindh were bowled out in the final session as Northern skipper Nauman finished with four for 51 to follow-up on his first innings haul of five for 58.

The result means Sindh remain winless in the six-team event. Nauman, a left-arm-spinner, finished with match figures of nine for 109 as only Khurram Manzoor (35), Anwar Ali (32), Rameez Aziz (15) and Sohail Khan (54 from 60 balls) offered resistance on a wearing track on the final day.

Sindh were in trouble soon after Northern declared their second innings at 262 for four. Northern batsman Zeeshan Malik fell without adding to his score of 96 to Mir Hamza. Faizan Riaz was out for 41.

Hammad Azam (39 from 24 balls) and Noman (32 from 15 balls) then added rapid runs to enable the captain to declare the innings.

In the Sindh innings, Shehzar Muhammad, who scored 74 in the first innings, was the first to go. He was trapped leg before by Waqar with a sharp in-swinger. Saad Ali followed him when he played on to left armer Sadaf Hussain.

All-rounder Hammad Azam struck two telling blows after lunch to leave Sindh tottering on 70 for four. He first bowled skipper Sarfraz Ahmed (16) with one that came in. He then forced first innings centurion Fawad Alam to try to cut a ball too close to his body to be caught behind.

Sindh suffered their fifth blow when Nauman trapped Khurram leg-before as he tried to play an expansive sweep shot. Anwar and Rameez tried to steady the innings with a dour sixth-wicket partnership of 34 runs which was broken when Nauman beat the latter with a clever arm ball and trapped him leg before to leave Sindh 126 for six at tea.

The situation only turned worse for the home side after tea when Anwar was stumped by Jamal Anwar off the bowling of Nauman who also had Hassan Khan (11) caught at first slip.

Salman Irshad trapped Tabish Khan leg before. Sohail was caught at slip off Faizan Riaz. In the first innings, Northern collected five batting and three bowling points. Sindh collected three bowling and as many batting points.

Sami Aslam of Southern Punjab strengthened his position at the top of the run-getters list with another sublime century as his side’s fixture against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa fizzled into a draw in Abbottabad.

The left-handed opener remained unbeaten on 150, his fourth century of the season. It took him to 833 runs in seven matches, 158 runs ahead of his closest rival Ashfaq Ahmed, who has 675 runs.

Sami’s 324-minute innings allowed Southern Punjab to finish their second innings at 337 for five, after they had conceded a 79-run first innings lead.

Sami’s 254-ball innings was studded with 15 fours and a six. He added 165 runs for the second wicket with Zeeshan Ashraf who was unlucky to miss his century by six runs. Zeeshan was ruthless in his 112-ball innings, clubbing nine fours and six sixes.

For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, fast bowler Irfanullah Shah took three wickets for 33 runs. Bad light allowed only 26.3 overs on the final day of the match between Central Punjab and Balochistan as the contest at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium ended in a draw.

Only 217.2 overs were bowled in the whole match. Central Punjab were 324 for nine in 93.1 overs in reply to Balochistan’s 450 all out when the match ended.

Central Punjab and Balochistan bagged three batting and bowling points, respectively. Middle-order batsman Usman Salahuddin, who resumed his innings on 74 on Thursday, fell six runs short of recording his first century of the tournament.

The 28-year-old faced 177 balls, dispatching 11 of them for fours, before he was trapped LBW by Imran Farhat, the only bowler to take wickets on day four.

The Balochistan captain took two wickets for 16 runs in eight overs. Usman’s overnight partner Zafar Gohar added 31 runs to his tally before getting caught and bowled. Waqas Maqsood (16) was the third wicket to fall as he was run out by Umar Gul.

Balochistan bagged five batting points while Central Punjab gained two bowling points. In the eighth round of the tournament, which commences from November 18, Central Punjab will be hosted by Sindh at the National Stadium, Karachi. Balochistan will play Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at Karachi’s UBL Sports Complex. This match was scheduled in Abbottabad, but was shifted because of bad weather conditions there.