Quaid-e-Azam Trophy: Shoaib Malik propels PIA to victory over http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Multan-c819
Multan suffered its sixth successive defeat in Division One of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship 2010-11, when it was beaten by PIA at the Gymkhana Ground, Okara, on Tuesday. Shoaib Malik was the man of the
hour for PIA, working wonders with both bat and ball to set his team up for victory.
PIA has thus far remained unbeaten in the competition, but has not yet accumulated enough victories to get ahead in the points table. After beating Multan by a heavy margin in the sixth round of the competition, PIA is now at number
five in the points table with 18 points.
Inexperienced Multan, meanwhile, is at the bottom of the points table with six defeats in six games. One of the major reasons behind Multan’s poor showings is that the majority of its top performers are off the team to play for
their respective departments.
PIA captain and left-handed top-order batsman Kamran Sajid won the toss on Tuesday and invited Multan to bat first. Multan was eventually bowled out for 220 runs in 65.2 overs. The team’s middle-order batsmen must be very disappointed
with their performance because all of them made promising starts but could not follow them through. Taimur Ahmed scored 39 runs batting at number four and was Multan’s top scorer in its first innings. Skipper Abdur Rauf scored 34 while Kashif Naved and Ansar
Ali scored 24 each.
For PIA, captain Kamran Sajid was the pick of the bowlers with his medium-pace deliveries, taking four wickets. Tall left-arm fast bowler Najaf Shah took three wickets. Najaf had been struggling with fitness problems so this performance
was a welcome comeback for him.
When it was PIA’s turn to bat, they scored 258 runs and took a first-innings lead of 38 runs, mostly thanks to a brilliant turn by Kamran Sajid, who scored 94 runs. He was unfortunate to be dismissed via run-out before he could
complete a century. Kamran struck 13 fours in his knock. Wicketkeeper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Anop-Santosh-c1058 scored 59 and Shoaib Malik scored a quick 48 off only 46 balls, which included 10 fours.
Multan captain Abdur Rauf was the star for his team as he grabbed six PIA wickets. Meanwhile, Tahir Maqsood, Ahmed Raza and Kashif Naved took a wicket each for Multan.
In its second innings, Multan was bowled out for only 72. None other than Shoaib Malik was responsible for the destruction. Shoaib, who is having a wonderful domestic season in 2010-11, grabbed five wickets while conceding only
14 runs in 6.5 overs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Najaf-Shah-c2056 also took three wickets in Multan’s second innings.
PIA required only 35 runs in the last innings to win the match. This was achieved quickly, in 7.1 overs with the loss of only one wicket, and PIA won the match by 9 wickets.
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