Karachi: The ninth round of the premier first class tournament, Quaid-e-Azam began with a brilliant ton by Sindh’s Mohammad Hasan and a five-wicket haul by Balochistan’s Kashif Bhatti.
At the National Stadium, Central Punjab, by the end of the day, accumulated 267-5 against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. After choosing to bat first, CP lost both openers, Ali Zaryab and Mohammad Akhlaq, with nothing on board. At this point Usman Salahuddin and Mohammad Saad steadied the ship with a 106-run stand. Usman perished for 53 while Mohammad Saad amassed 78. Saad Nasim is batting on 81 with Ali Shan (24). Irfan ullah Shah, Sameen Gul, Arshad Iqbal and Sajid Khan claimed a wicket each.
At the UBL Sports Complex, Balochistan have scored 92 runs in their 27 overs thus far. Imran Farhat (53) and Ali Rafiq (29) will resume the innings on Monday.
Earlier Northern were reduced to 203 by brilliant bowling by Kashif Bhatti who bagged five wickets for 75 runs. Raza ul Hasan uprooted three scalps.
Northern’s prominent scorers were Ali Sarfarz (38), Nasir Nawaz (31), Waqas Ahmed (26) and Mohammad Nawaz (26).
Meanwhile, at the State Bank stadium, Southern Punjab jotted 41-1 by the end of day-one against Sindh.
Zain Abbas (25) and Mohammad Ilyas (zero) will restart the SP innings. The dismissed batsman, Umar Siddiqui was taken up by pacer Shahnawaz Dhani on 14.
Earlier Sindh were bundled out for 217. Six of Sindh batsmen failed to enter double figure however the sixth-wicket partnership of 173 between Mohammad Hasan and Saad Ali dragged their team out of trouble. Mohammad Hasan knitted a fine 111 while Saad Ali played a brilliant hand of 79. Aamir Yameen, Zia-ul-Haw and Zahid Mehmood took three wickets each.