Abbottabad, FATA, Sialkot and Multan secured wins as the third round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy concluded on Tuesday.
The next round will begin on Friday, October 24, in Abbottabad, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.
Sialkot’s Mohammad Ali picked up his 12th first-class five-for and also completed 200 wickets in the format to skittle Lahore Whites for a mere 105 in 35.5 overs on day four as they fell 284 runs short.
Fast bowler Shahid Aziz handed FATA an emphatic 184-run win – their first in the tournament – over Karachi Blues at the Imran Khan Stadium in Peshawar with his second five-wicket haul in the match.
Chasing 296 to win and 67-4 overnight, Karachi Blues batters were rattled by Shahid Aziz’s figures of 5-33 in 14.1 overs as he took his second first-class 10-fer and also bested his previous top match-figures of 10-120 with 10-78.
Multan made light work of the 35-run target set by Faisalabad as they took 41 balls to haul it, bagging their first victory and climbing to second spot on the points table besides Peshawar.
Earlier, Faisalabad resumed their second innings from an overnight score of 223-5 and with 116 runs in arrears, but were dismissed for 373 in 129.3 overs.
Faisalabad’s overnight unbeaten batter Asim Ali Nasir registered his maiden first-class century (114, 249b, 16x4s, 2x6s), while wicketkeeper-batter Ali Shan remained unbeaten on 77 off 221 balls, hitting 10 fours. For Multan, Mohammad Shan dismissed three batters.
Islamabad fell 70 runs short of hauling a mammoth 524-run target as they were dismissed for 453 in 114.1 overs after resuming from a steady overnight position of 234-2 against Abbottabad at the Marghzar Cricket Ground.
Abbottabad’s Khalid Usman struck five blows in his 39.1 overs to safeguard his team against Islamabad’s come-from-behind effort.
Following Raja Hamza Waheed’s (117, 118b, 16x4s, 3x6s) departure early in the day, Sarmad Bhatti (109, 201b, 13x4s) kept Islamabad in the hunt with his 11th first-class century but didn’t get much help from the other end except from Jawad Ali (61, 114b, 8x4s, 2x6s).
The duo stitched together 129 runs for the seventh wicket, but both fell prey to the player of the match, Khalid. Israr Hussain and Mohammad Adil dismissed two batters each.
