The News

Karachi Urban beat Faisalabad to reach the final

Round-up of the fourth day's play of the seventh round matches of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Gold League

17-Feb-2007
Tahir Khan's offbreak bowling helped Karachi Urban wrap up the Faisalabad tail and win by 143 runs to make it to the top of the Gold League table on the final day of their Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship at the United Bank Limited (UBL) Sports Complex in Karachi.
Tahir, having got 4 for 64 runs in the first innings, claimed 3 for 34 in the second as Faisalabad, needing 313 for victory, were bowled out for 169 in 68 overs.
Tahir, who toured Sri Lanka with the Pakistan team last year, ended with 7 for 98 runs for the match. Tanvir Ahmed and Imran Javed, Karachi Urban's right-arm fast-medium bowlers, got two wickets each.
Imran Ali top-scored for Faisalabad with a painstaking 53 off 184 balls. Misbah-ul-Haq followed his 83 in the first innings with 33 in the second.
Karachi Urban will now take on defending champions Sialkot in the final starting February 19 at the Multan Cricket Stadium. Faisalabad were the trophy winners in 2003-04 and runners-up in the last two seasons. They finished at fifth spot this time, with 18 points from six matches, of which they won two and lost three.
Khalid Latif, the Karachi Harbour opener, scored an unbeaten hundred as defending champions Sialkot, into the final, held them to a draw at the National Stadium in Karachi.
Despite conceding a first-innings lead and a draw without any points, Sialkot have set up a title clash with Karachi Urban starting February 19.
The match was called off seven overs before the scheduled end of play with no chance of a result. Sialkot were 174 for 4 in their second innings after being set a target of 370 to in 47 overs.
Khalid Latif's 123 was the highest score of his career and his third first-class hundred overall. Opener Atiq-ur-Rehman hammered 62 off 82 balls while Tahir Mughal finished with 37 off 48 balls.
Fawad Alam missed his century by three runs as ran himself out trying to take a single as Sarfraz Ahmed landed a direct throw from mid-on. Khalid and Fawad added 180 for the fourth wicket.
With a draw in this match, Sialkot slipped to second place in the Gold League table while Karachi Harbour remained at sixth place with 15 points but they avoided demotion to next season's Silver League circuit to which Lahore Shalimar have been relegated.