Fight for the all-important top two spots in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy has started to heat up as the seventh round of the tournament came to a close. All three matches ended in a result as batsmen found it difficult to stick on the wicket.
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Central Punjab recorded their second victory of the tournament after defeating league leaders Northern by 6 wickets. Northern batted first and only managed 243 runs in the first innings. Northern captain Nauman Ali picked up a 7 wicket haul to restrict Central Punjab to only 234 in reply. Northern’s batting could not tackle a strong Central Punjab batting unit and were bowled out for 156. Central Punjab chased down the target comfortably with six wickets in hand.
Southern Punjab bounced back from a disappointing outing in the last round and defeated Balochistan by 205 runs. Aamer Yamin and Zia-ul-Haq were the pick of the bowlers as they picked 6 and 7 wickets respectively. Balochistan is now winless in the last 6 rounds, having recorded only one victory in the opening round.
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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded their second consecutive victory and did it in some style, defeating Sindh by an innings and 37 runs. KPK spinner Sajid Khan picked up another 5 wicket haul as Sindh was unable to answer KPK’s strong bowling performance. KPK batsman Kamran Ghulam was the only centurion in all three matches in this round.
Here is the updated QeA Trophy points table after the 7th round:
Team | Matches | Won | Lost | Drawn | Points | Net Run Rate |
KP | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 117 | +0.016 |
Northern | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 104 | +0.431 |
Southern Punjab | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 103 | -0.084 |
Central Punjab | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 76 | -0.318 |
Balochistan | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 74 | +0.010 |
Sindh | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 66 | -0.030 |