Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2010-11: Muhammad Ayub and Mansoor Amjad shine as Sialkot beat Karachi Blues
In the 7th round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2010-11, Sialkot defeated the Karachi Blues by nine wickets to secure its first victory of the season, thanks to astonishing batting performances by Mohammad Ayub and Mansoor
Amjad. Although Sialkot has lost the services of its premier players, who are playing for their respective departments, the younger players on the team have shown immense talent. On the other hand, the Karachi Blues’ performance has been disappointing this
season, with four losses in six games.
Saeed Bin Nasir won the toss for the Karachi Blues and elected to field first at the National Stadium in Karachi. Sialkot was in trouble at one point with 48-4, when skipper Mansoor Amjad and dashing middle-order batsman Mohammad
Ayub came to the team’s rescue. Both of them accumulated 289 runs for the fifth-wicket partnership as Sialkot declared its first innings at 379 runs for the loss of nine wickets.
Mansoor Amjad, who has also played One Day International cricket for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, scored a brilliant 157 off 291 balls. He struck 19 fours in his innings. His performance is incredible when one bears in mind that he is primarily a
leg-spin bowler.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Ayub also dazzled, with 134 runs off 239 balls, including 19 fours and a six.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Babar-Rehman-c47132 and Akbar-ur-Rehman picked up three wickets each for Karachi Blues, while Adnan Malik took two wickets.
In response to Sialkot’s innings, Karachi Blues came up with a disappointing batting effort once again, and ended up all out for only 160 runs – giving Sialkot a first-innings lead of 219 runs. Rameez Raja and Murtaza Majeed were
the only ones to make half-decent scores, 37 and 35 respectively.
Fast bowler http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-Malik-c64244 was the one responsible for destroying the Blues’ batting order, picking up a career-best six wickets for 38. Left-arm spinner Nabeel Malik took two wickets.
Following on, the Karachi Blues then displayed a much better performance with the bat and scored 371 runs in their second innings. Rameez Raja and Murtaza Majeed put up a second-wicket partnership of 119 runs. Raja struck an aggressive
century as he scored 105 off only 96 balls, which included 17 fours and a six. Murtaza played a more orthodox innings as compared to his partner, scoring 79 runs off 204 balls. Atif Ali also chipped in 49 runs for Karachi Blues.
Nabeel Malik picked up four wickets for Sialkot, and Prince Abbas took three.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sialkot-c842 were given a target of 153 runs to win the 7th-round fixture. Interestingly, Sialkot promoted the in-form Mansoor Amjad and Muhammad Ayub to open the innings and the ploy actually worked for the visitors as they
gave Sialkot a 73-run opening stand. Muhammad Ayub shone once again with an unbeaten 84 and skipper Mansoor Amjad scored 41. Majid Jehangir remained not out on 25.
Karachi Blues captain, Saeed Bin http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nasir-c78728 took the solitary wicket to fall in the Sialkot innings. There was nothing more the Blues could do. Sialkot won the match by nine wickets.
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