Athar Mehmood’s splendid figures of six for 40 engineered Northern’s dominating nine-wicket win over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on day three of what was the fifth-round encounter of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2022-23 at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium.
This was Northern’s third win of the season and has furthered consolidated their position at the top of the six-team points table.
After Northern scored 249 in reply to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 175 yesterday, the latter began the day with a trail of 56 with nine wickets in hand.
But, a brilliant display of fast bowling from Athar bowled out Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for just 121 runs as the right-arm bowler accounted for Sajid Khan, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Sarwar Afridi, Imran Khan Snr, and Ihsanullah after he had sent back Waqar Ahmed in the closing moments of day two. This was Athar’s maiden five-wicket haul.
Northern – set 48 to win – chased the target in 20.1 overs.
Sindh captain, Saud Shakeel, converted his overnight 30 into his third century of the season. The left-hander was unbeaten on 187 off 387 balls and smashed 20 fours as Sindh scored 390 in 123 overs.
The innings handed Sindh a 121-run lead over Balochistan, who find themselves in a precarious situation after losing three wickets for just 56 runs in 22 overs.
Southern Punjab were stuttering in their pursuit of 377 as they had lost two wickets for 80. Usman Salahuddin and Sharoon Siraj batted at 20 and 12 after the opening pair of Umar Siddiq (36) and Zain Abbas (11) was dismissed by Faheem Ashraf and Mohammad Ali, who recorded his fifth first-class five-fer yesterday.
Splendid centuries from Abdullah Shafique and Azhar Ali saw Central Punjab post 274 for three at a run rate of nearly five in 57 overs after the day began with the batting side on four for none.
Abdullah smashed 15 fours in his unbeaten 168-ball 114 and Azhar struck 12 fours and a six in his 126-ball 108.
