The sixth round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2010-11 (Division One) was played from the 28th of November till the 1st of December. So far a strong competition has developed between WAPDA, Habib Bank and ZTBL
for the top position while the National Bank is not doing as well as expected.
At Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot, the home team was up against the strong side of the National Bank. Sialkot Captain and international player, Mansoor Amjad won the toss and elected to bowl first in bowling friendly conditions. Although
the Silakot bowlers struck a couple of early blows but Test cricketer Fawad Alam and opener Rashid Riaz batted superbly and developed a 3rd wicket partnership of 114 runs. National Bank of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 was able to pile up 358 runs on the board in their
1st innings. Fawad Alam was the star for NBP with a solid hundred which included 15 boundaries.
There has been a lot of criticism on the technique of Fawad Alam but no one can deny his consistent performances at the domestic level as he is currently averaging 56.87 in first-class cricket, which is quite amazing.
Rashid Riaz was the other main scorer with 75 and test cricketer Qaiser Abbas also chipped in with 49 runs. Muhammad http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Waqas-Ahmed-c96195 also impressed with 3 wickets.
In reply, Sialkot was in trouble because of a fiery spell by Muhammad Talha before Majid Jehangir and Muhammad Ayub consolidated the Sialkot innings. Majid played a fantastic knock of 119 runs which included 13 fours. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sialkot-c842
was bowled out for 297 runs and as a result conceded a 1st innings lead of 61 runs to NBP. Apart from Majid, Muhammad Ayub also shined with an important 59 of only 80 deliveries. Muhammad Talha took 6 wickets for NBP with Muhammad http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zahid-c98463 and Uzair
ul Haq getting a couple of scalps each.
In the 2nd innings, NBP declared at 299 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. This time round, Nasir Jamshed scored a brilliant 120 not out and remained unbeaten with 14 fours. Captain Kamran Akmal, who failed in the 1st
innings, scored 77 of 79 balls in the 2nd innings, which is quite an incredible strike-rate in the longer format of the game. Left-arm spinner, Nabeel Malik took 3 wickets for Sialkot.
Sialkot had to bat out for 38 overs in the last innings in order to avoid defeat, which they did without any major hiccups. Muhammad Ayub who scored a half-century in the 1st innings, scored a magnificent hundred this
time and remained unbeaten on 107 including 7 fours and 3 sixes. Opener, Jawad Ahmed was the other main scorer for the home side as he scored 62 with 7 fours and a six.
Fawad Alam and Uzair ul Haq took one wicket each for NBP. With yet another draw, NBP would be disappointed with the result as Sialkot is quite an inexperienced team as compared to NBP which is full of international stars. In the
current season, NBP has come up with some brilliant individual performances in the form of Kamran Akmal, Muhammad Talha, Umar Amin, Nasir Jamshed and Fawad Alam but they need to gel as a unit to secure more victories for their team.
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