Lahore
The revamped Quaid-e-Azam Trophy has come down to the 10th and final round of the four-day tournament that will determine which two sides will progress to the final at the National Stadium, read a press release from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
With a maximum of 24 points (five batting, three bowling and 16 win) available, the top four sides are separated by 18 points, whereas Sindh and Balochistan will fight out to avoid the wooden spoon at the National Stadium in the six-team competition.
Table-toppers Central Punjab will go into their last round match against fourth-placed Southern Punjab leading by 18 points. This match will be played at the State Bank Stadium in Karachi.
Second-placed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have a 13-point advantage over their third-placed opponents Northern. This match will be played at the UBL Sports Complex in Karachi.
This means the top four sides – Central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern and Southern Punjab – will fight to not only collect maximum points but to also keep their rivals to the minimum to ensure they remain in the hunt for the winner’s purse of RS10 million along with the prestigious silverware. Central Punjab v Southern Punjab In the last four rounds, Central Punjab and Southern Punjab have both collected 42 points.
When the two sides had met in the tournament opener, the match had ended in a high-scoring draw with Southern Punjab scoring 467 and 107-1, and Central Punjab scoring 473 in their only outing.
As points are awarded after 110 overs of the first innings of each side, both the teams pocketed 11 points apiece from this Punjab derby.
Southern’s Sami Aslam had launched his first-class season with 243 and he is now the leading run-getter with 861 runs. Adnan Akmal, who scored 113 runs in the match, has 554 runs. In contrast, Central’s leading run-scorer to date is Kamran Akmal (750 runs), while Salman Butt is the tournament’s sixth most successful batsman with 662 runs.
Amongst the bowlers, Central’s Zafar Gohar is second on the overall list with 36 wickets, while his team-mate Bilal Asif is nine wickets behind with 27 wickets. For Southern, Mohammad Irfan has been the pick of the bowlers with 22 wickets, while Rahat Ali has 17 wickets.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa v Northern The two sides were involved in an exciting first-round fixture when Northern escaped with a draw after being forced to follow-on.—Agencies
