Lahore-W beat Karachi-B by Ten Wickets as Kamran hits big Ton

Kamran Akmal, the wicket-keeper batsman, hit a splendid 174 as Lahore-whites beat Karachi-blues by 10 wickets in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (Grade-1) match played at the LCA Ground.

Put into bat by Lahore, the visiting team made 259 in their first innings, thanks to a fine knock of 114 by the right-handed opener Afsar Nawaz. The other worthwhile contribution from Karachi was made by Farhan Adil who got 48.

Imran Tahir, the right-arm wrist spinner was the most successful bowler from Lahore with 5 wickets for 57 runs. Maqsood Rana and Irfan Fazil took 3 and 2 wickets, respectively, for 45 and 81 runs.

Lahore started their batting with openers Ali Hussain and Zahoor Elahi putting on 33 for the first wicket. At this point, Ali Hussain became one of the five victims of the seamer, Rizwan Saeed, as he was bowled at the individual score of 14. Mustaqim Ahmed (9) followed soon after at the total of 57, as he edged Rizwan for an easy catch behind the wicket.

It was the third wicket stand of 66 between Zahoor (63) and Taufeeq Umar (58) which really set the pace for the Lahore batting and enabled the late order, led by Kamran Akmal, to pile up runs.

Kamran dominated the bowlers immediately after his arrival at the crease. He hit 28 fours and one six in his innings, as he added 109 runs for the sixth wicket with Tariq Mahmood (46) and 129 for the seventh with Naeem Ashraf (28).

He was the ninth batsman out for Lahore as the hosts completed their innings at 428, getting a first innings benefit of 169 runs.

For Karachi, Rizwan Saeed bagged five wickets for 116 runs, whereas Faheem Ahmed took 3 for 87.

Karachi had a shaky start to their second innings as Zafar Jadoon was bowled in the very first over by Irfan Fazil. Saeed Azad, the captain, promoted himself in the batting order and added 54 for the second wicket before he became the second victim of Irfan for 29. Afsar Nawaz, the first innings' centurion, could gather only 24 in the second innings as he was dismissed by Maqsood Rana at the total of 79.

Iqbal Imam and Rizwan Saeed were the only other Karachi batsmen who could put up some resistance against some excellent bowling from Lahore, especially the right-arm seamer, Irfan (6 for 100). They made 37 and 27, respectively, as the whole team was out for 192, leaving a target of 26 for the hosts to win the match.

The Lahore openers, Ali Hussain and Maqsood Rana, took just 3.3 overs to finish off the match. Maqsood, promoted in the order hit one six and one boundary in his innings of 12 off 8 balls, whereas Ali scored seven.