Quaid-e-Azam trophy- Mohammad Naved's seven wickets earns SBP the title
State Bank of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-Research-Laboratories-c804 (KRL) by the virtue of their heavy first innings lead at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
The match turned out to be a seven-day affair, as one of the days was curtailed due to the assassination of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-c88163 Taseer. And, there was no play on the fourth day due to heavy rain and wet outfield.
Batting first, State Bank of Pakistan piled up a competitive 303-run first innings total in overcast conditions. The ball had been swinging in the air and the batsmen found it difficult to cope with the moving ball.
In pursuit, Khan Research Laboratories performed poorly with the bat in trying conditions, capitulating for an average 159-run total to provide the opposition a significant 144-run lead.
KRL won the toss and elected to field first. SBP started their innings in a sedate manner, as they played vigilantly at the start of their innings. In doing so, the openers put up a resilient 52-run opening partnership in order to lay a solid foundation
for the middle order batsmen to build upon.
Shoaib Khan was the star performer with the bat for his team, racking up 76 runs off just 99 balls. The left-hand batsman played superbly and displayed his strokes all around the park, muscling eleven crisp boundaries. The State Bank team lost a couple of
quick wickets in the middle overs, losing three wickets in the space of only 22 runs.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Naved-Yasin-c2081 and Afsar Nawaz added 94 runs for the fifth wicket stand in order to rescue their team from an early debacle. In doing so, the pair pushed SBP to a total of 199 for 5. Yasin remained the top scorer for his team with 77 runs, while Nawaz scored
31 runs. Then, a late order blaze from the bat of Jalat Khan powered his team to a total of 313 runs. Khan added 45 runs in a brisk manner, smashing seven fours in order to blow the opposition out of the water.
For KRL, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yasir-Arafat-c98241 was the pick of the bowlers as he bowled a persistent line and length and his excellent swing bowling earned him healthy dividends. The right-arm bowler was a lone warrior for his team, scalping remarkable figures of 9/108 in a marathon
spell of 26 overs. Apart from Yasir, Bilal Asad was the only other wicket taker, chipping in with figures of 1/16 in his five overs.
The KRL team started their innings poorly, losing their first wicket for only 7 runs. However, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ali-Naqvi-c998 and Zulfiqar Jan provided some sort of stability to KRL’s innings and they added 55 runs for the second wicket stand.
Moreover, it was the highest partnership of their innings. Naqvi posted a resolute fifty, while Jan added 30 runs, though their contribution wasn’t enough to put their team in a comfortable position, as the wickets continued to stumble in the middle overs.
KRL lost three wickets in the space of just 14 runs.
Naqvi provided further resistance and assembled a 46-run stand along-with Bilal Asad to steer their team to 122 for 5. The KRL late-order willowers completely failed to make an impression with the bat, as they lost their last five wickets, scoring only 37
runs.
For the State Bank team, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Naved-c77151 was the star performer with the ball. He extracted movement off the track and in the air on a consistent basis. His line and length was immaculate. His probing bowling earned him remarkable figures of 7/61 and his
team the title of QAE.
The Division one final is still to be played between the two domestic giants HBL and PIA. Fans around the country will have to wait for that epic encounter.
Tags: