Clinical Southern Punjab seal massive win

Southern Punjab v Sindh

A clinical effort by Southern Punjab helped them clinch a convincing victory by an innings and 129 runs against Sindh in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy round four match at the UBL Sports Complex on Tuesday (October 8).

Centuries by Aamer Yamin (142), Shan Masood (118) and Mohammad Irfan junior (101) set the platform for Southern Punjab as they amassed 546 runs in the first innings of the match.

In reply, Sindh who looked deflated having spent more than 140 overs on the field, were bowled out for 284 and matters only got worse after they were asked to bat again. Bilawal Bhatti bagged a four-wicket haul, meanwhile Aamer Yamin claimed three wickets to bundle them out for a paltry score of 133 in the second innings.

With this victory, Southern Punjab leap to the second spot on points table with 49 points, whereas Sindh are placed fourth with 34 points.

Southern Punjab (Aamer Yamin 142, Shan Masood 118; Fawad Alam 2-63, Tabish Khan 2-101, Sohail Khan 2-102) beat Sindh 284 (Asad Shafiq 57, Saad Ali 55; Rahat Ali 4-66) and 133 (Omair Bin Yousuf 37, Saad Ali 30*; Bilawal Bhatti 4-23) by an innings and 129 runs.

Balochistan v Northern

Balochistan managed to salvage a draw on the final day of their Quaid-e-Azam Trophy game versus Northern as bad light came into play.

Having set a target of 299 runs by Northern, Balochistan lost seven wickets in 67 overs, with Yasir Shah and Khurram Shahzad at the crease. But with almost 10 overs lost on the final day, getting a result wasn't possible.

It was a commanding batting effort by Northern in the match though as they scored 450 in the first innings with Faizan Riaz and Haider Ali notching up centuries. Nauman Ali's five-wicket haul proved to be crucial in accomplishing a big 149-run lead, but things could have been different had they declared a bit earlier.

Although Northern were the far superior side in this contest, Balochistan are still above them when it comes to the points table with 34 points. Northern with 32 points are languishing at the bottom of the points table.

Northern 450 (Faizan Riaz 141, Haider Ali 133; Amad Butt 3-57, Mohammad Asghar 2-62) and 149/3 decl. (Zeeshan Malik 68) drew with Balochistan 301 (Asif Zakir 61; Nauman Ali 5-52, Haris Rauf 3-73) and 183-7 (Imran Butt 59; Faizan Riaz 2-16, Haris Rauf 2-58)

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa v Central Punjab

On a batting friendly wicket at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium, Central Punjab played out 50 overs with only a wicket lost to manage a draw against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

With scores of 484/5 in the first innings and 112/3 in the second innings, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had set a target of 319. But Central Punjab, who were bowled out for 278 in the first innings, put up a much better performance in the second innings as they eased to 129/1 before the match ended in a draw.

Asfaq Ahmed with an excellent knock of 173 and Mohammad Rizwan with his fine innings of 128 made merry on the first couple of days.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 484/5 decl. (Ashfaq Ahmed 173, Mohammad Rizwan 128; Naseem Shah 2-85, Zafar Gohar 1-85) and 112 for 3 decl. (Israrullah 26) drew with Central Punjab 278 ( Kamran Akmal 136; Sameen Gul 4-57, Imran Khan snr 2-72) and 129 for 1 (Salman Butt 63*)