Rawalpindi strongly placed against Karachi Blues

Rawalpindi were strongly placed despite a valiant fight back by Karachi Blues on the second day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Grade-I Cricket Championship match at the UBL Sports Complex here on Monday.

The home side ended the day on 106 for three in their first innings in reply to Rawalpindi's 360. Opener Maisam Hasnain batted responsibly for an unbeaten 27 in almost three hours. Giving him company at the crease was skipper Farhan Adil with 15.

Karachi Blues, however, dominated the first half of the day when they claimed Rawalpindi's remaining seven wickets for 94 runs after the visitors had resumed at 259 for three.

Test reject Mohammad Wasim was undone by a fine outswinger from Tanvir Ahmed, who had the upright right-hander caught at the wicket with the second new ball. Wasim added only four to his overnight score of 38.

Shahid Javed, the other overnight batsman, collected another 19 runs before he was deceived by an armer from Salman Fazal and was bowled for 82 with the total on 323. Shahid, whose knock lasted 306 minutes, faced 250 deliveries and hit seven fours.

All-rounder Yasir Arafat made a brisk 36 off 44 balls with five boundaries in 71 minutes until he edged Salman Fazal to Faisal Iqbal at slip. The other notable scorer on Monday was ex-Test spinner Shakeel Ahmed with 20.

Tanvir Ahmed and Tabish Nawab captured three wickets apiece while Imranullah and Salman took two each.

Karachi Blues were off to a poor start when left-handed Zafar Jadoon was taken at first slip by Shahid Javed off left-arm pacer Mohammad Ghufran for five.

Shortly afterwards Ghufran took his second scalp of an impressive opening spell. Asim Kamal, the left-handed one-down batsman, played away from his body to a widish delivery and was superbly held in the gully by Tasawwar Hussain for 16.

Faisal Iqbal, fresh from his double century against Sargodha last week, was a victim of the unpredictable behaviour of the pitch. He tried to play left-arm spinner Shakeel Ahmed off the backfoot but was shocked to see the ball skidding through just above ankle height to strike his pad right in front of the stumps. He made 23 off 55 balls with a solitary boundary.

Luckily for Karachi Blues, Maisam and Farhan negotiated the remaining 74 minutes of play to lift the score from 69 for three without being parted.