Before the start of the seventh round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, 2010-11, Habib Bank and ZTBL were tied at the second position behind WAPDA. With the arrival of their senior players from the national duty, Habib Bank defeated ZTBL comfortably by 8 wickets
in the 7th round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
By this win, HBL has snatched the first position on the points table from WAPDA because of a superb effort by the young opener, Ahmed Shehzad.
At the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Habib Bank’s captain and Test cricketer, Hassan Raza won the toss on a seaming track and invited ZTBL to bat first. ZTBL were bowled out for a mere 118 in only 35.5 overs which was quite a disappointing effort by an experienced
batting line-up which included Test players like Yasir Hameed, Imran Nazir and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-c89347 Yousaf. Fast bowler Kashif Daud scored 27 runs and remained the top-scorer for ZTBL and struck 5 boundaries in his cameo.
Star for Habib Bank was Azhar Mahmood who took a 5-wicket haul and broke the back of ZTBL’s batting through some splendid seam bowling. Younis Khan bowled his gentle seamers and picked 3 prize scalps for his team, whereas, Kamran Hussain grabbed a couple
of wickets.
In reply, Habib Bank showed a much better batting performance because of its experienced middle-order as it piled up 299 runs on the board and took a 1st innings lead of 181 runs. Captain, Hassan Raza was the top-scorer with 60 which included
8 boundaries. Aftab Alam and Kamran Hussain scored 44 and 42 respectively and the wicket-keeper Humayun Farhat scored a valuable 25 off only 12 balls.
Left-arm pacer Muhammad Khalil picked up 5 wickets for ZTBL after conceding 64 runs. Kashif Daud and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rehan-Riaz-c84633 also grabbed a couple of wickets each.
Because of a heroic innings by test cricketer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yasir-Hameed-c2811, ZTBL were able to score 361 runs in its 2nd innings. Yasir carried his bat with an unbeaten 171 runs and his innings included 24 fours. The only other notable contribution was of Imran
Nazir’s, who scored 51 off just 50 balls.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Azhar-Mahmood-c1116 and Kamran Hussain picked up a wicket each.
Habib Bank were given a target of 182 runs to win the match which they achieved because of a tremendous batting display by Ahmed Shehzad who has been recently picked in the Twenty20 squad of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754. Ahmed scored an unbeaten
94 in which he struck 16 fours and a towering six. Saleem Elahi remained unbeaten on 39. Habib Bank lost only 2 wickets in pursuit of the chase in shape of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-c64193 Farhat and the night-watchman Fahad Masood.
Muhammad Khalil who grabbed a 5-wicket haul in the 1st innings, took both the wickets to fall in the 2nd innings as well and continued with his excellent form this season.
There were some brilliant performances in this match especially by Yasir Hameed, Azhar Mahmood and Muhammad Khalil but Ahmed Shehzad stood out as his innings was more influential on the outcome of the match. In this young age, he has definitely proven that
he is a tough character and has often played match-winning innings in difficult circumstances, which is a sign that he has a bright future in front of him if he is able to remain composed.
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