Khurram’s century sets KP 258 to win

KARACHI: Khurram Manzoor (107) hit a glorious century while Saad Khan and Asad Shafiq also played solid knocks as Sindh set a target of 258 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the third day of their seventh round fixture of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy here at the SBP Stadium on Thursday.

Having conceded a 120-run lead, Sindh resumed their second innings at 137-2 and were folded for 377 in 124.1 overs.

Khurram Manzoor and Asad Shafiq added 184 runs for the third wicket.

Asad, who was batting on 50 on the second day, was the first to go when he was trapped lbw off left-arm spinner Asif Afridi. Asad scored 83 off 166 balls, smacking 12 fours.

Khurram, who completed his 30th first-class century, also fell prey to Asif after lunch. Khurram hit 12 fours in his 280-ball feat.

Saad Khan scored unbeaten 89 off 143 balls, striking 12 fours and two sixes.

Irfanullah Shah picked 4-51, for a match haul of 9-94. Asif Afridi got 3-112. Arshad Iqbal claimed 2-115.

KP were 13 without loss in 3.3 overs in their second innings.

At the NBP Sports Complex, Northern were close to a huge win against Central Punjab. Following on, Central Punjab were reeling at 197-9 in their second innings in 75.1 overs. Ali Zaryab scored 71 off 69 balls, hammering nine fours. Imran Dogar made 55 off 101 balls, featuring eight fours. At one stage Central Punjab were 183-4 but lost the next five wickets for 14 runs.

Mubasir Khan claimed 5-34 in 23.1 overs. Haris Rauf took 3-62 in 15 overs. CP were just nine runs ahead with one wicket in hand.

Earlier, in response to Northern’s massive total of 445-8 declared in their first innings, CP resumed their innings at 223-8 and were folded for 257.

At the UBL Sports Complex, Ayaz Tasawar (149) and Bismillah Khan (125) hit centuries to enable Balochistan to secure 123 runs lead against Southern Punjab.

The duo added 223 runs for the fifth wicket as Balochistan posted 606 all out in response to Southern Punjab’s first innings score of 483 all out after resuming at 274-4.

Southern Punjab were 37 without loss in their second innings when bails were drawn.