Karachi Urban grab advantage against Lahore Shalimar

Karachi Urban dismissed Lahore Shalimar for 176 in the first innings of their third round Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship Gold League match at the National Stadium on Thursday.

Offspinner Tahir Khan grabbed 3 for 62 in 21 overs as Lahore Shalimar, who were put in to bat, were bowled out by the final session of the day. By the close of play, Karachi Urban had made a solid start by reaching 52 without loss. Agha Sabir was on 27 with five fours and Khurram Manzoor made 19 with two fours.

Azam Hussain, the left-arm spinner, claimed 2 for 27 in ten overs while Imran Javed snapped up 2 for 29 in 15 overs. Rajesh Ramesh got 2 for 47 in 17.4 overs to extend good support to Tahir.

Aamer Sajjad top-scored with 37 off 96 balls and captain Salman Butt made 25 off 65 balls. Irfan Fazil finished with 23 not out with three fours. Mohammad Hussain slammed four fours in his 24. Lahore Shalimar were reeling at 64 for 5 but the tail-enders helped them reach 176. The Urban attack suffered a blow when their strike bowler Tanvir Ahmed injured his finger in his seventh over while stopping a drive from Humayun Farhat.

Rawalpindi slid to 47 for 4 on the shortened opening day of their third round Gold League match of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship against Sialkot at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.

Owing to bad light, play started only after the tea break when defending champions Sialkot won the toss and invited Rawalpindi to bat in conditions conducive for bowling. Just 21 overs were bowled with opener Sohail Nasir making 15 and Tahir Rauf 12 as medium-fast bowlers Kashif Raza and Asim Butt took 2 for 12 and 2 for 25 respectively.

Babar Naeem was out for a duck while Naved Ashraf made just 6. The not out batsmen at stumps were skipper Mohammad Wasim on 10 and Usman Saeed on 2.

Only 17 overs play were possible due to inclement weather on the opening day of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Gold League match between Peshawar and Karachi Harbour at the Arbab Niaz Stadium. Table leaders Peshawar lost three wickets for 43 runs in this period.

Karachi Harbour's fast bowlers had the hosts rattled as three wickets fell with only five runs on the board. Fast bowlerAnwar Ali started the mini-slump, trapping opener Mohammad Fayyaz lbw. His new-ball partner Faraz Ahmed got rid of Aftab Khan and Rafatullah Mohmand before the fourth-wicket pair steadied the ship a bit.

Abbottabad made 77 for 2 in 33.3 overs on the opening day of their third round Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship Silver League match against Quetta at the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) Cricket Stadium. The match started at about 1.50 pm due to bad light mixed with a light drizzle. Both wickets were claimed by Quetta captain Faisal Irfan.

Lahore Ravi were struggling at 59 for 3 in 32 overs on the opening day of their match against Islamabad at the Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA) Ground.

Play started after lunch because of bad light and the Lahore batsmen failed to give a good account of themselves. They lost quick wickets as allrounder Azhar Mahmood took 2 for 14 in 11 overs.

Lahore Ravi lost the first wicket at 6, second at 19 and third at 52. At stumps Nasir Jamshed was not out on 20 and Adnan Raza on 6, after the departure of openers Rizwan Ahmed and Rizwan Aslam and captain Kashif Saddiq.

Table leaders Multan had a successful opening day against Hyderabad at the Multan Cricket Stadium as they compiled a score of 273 for 4.

The highlight of the day was a maiden first-class century by Kashif Naved, who spent nearly four hours at the crease for an unbeaten on 114 off 185 balls with 12 boundaries.

Hyderabad captain Faisal Athar won the toss and asked Multan to bat. Saeed Anwar junior, the Multan captain, scored 53 off 56 balls with six fours. The opening stand with Usman Tariq was worth 79 runs. Kashif was later joined by Bilal Khilji and the pair added 157 for the fourth wicket. Bilal's 58 came off 125 balls with seven fours. Hyderabad fast-bowler Farhan Ayub took 3 for 78 runs in 23 overs.