Baluchistan fast bowlers scythe through Sind

Baluchistan 91 for 4 (Tariq 40*) trail Sind 126 (Naumanullah 47, Azharullah 4-32) by 35 runs
Scorecard

Baluchistan's bowlers shrugged off the beating they took against North West Frontier Province to run through Sind's batting on the first day of their second-round match. Their batsmen too put on a much-improved performance to leave Baluchistan trailing by 35 runs with six wickets in hand.

After they chose to field, Baluchistan fast bowler Abdur Rauf struck two early blows, removing the in-form Khalid Latif, and Rizwan Ahmed. Naumanullah was the only batsman to resist as Kamran Hussain made further inroads into the Sind batting; Hussain got rid of the formidable middle-order trio of Faisal Iqbal, Fawad Alam and captain Shahid Afridi cheaply. Left-arm medium-pacer Azharullah then made short work of the lower order to limit Sind to 126.

Baluchistan's batsmen, led by a resolute unbeaten 40 by Usman Tariq, had moved along to 88 for 1 but lost three wickets for three runs to end a day of domination poorly.

Federal Areas 5 for 0 trail Punjab 306 (Butt 155) by 301 runs
Scorecard

Salman Butt slammed 155 - his fourth century in five Pentangular matches - against a Federal Areas bowling line-up that included Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir and Ifthikar Anjum to guide Punjab to 306.

Opener Butt hit 20 fours on the way to his 13th first-class hundred before being run out by a direct hit from Umar Amin. Butt received support from Khurram Shehzad (41), the pair adding 104 for the third wicket. The only other significant contribution came from No. 7 Mansoor Amjad, who made a 76-ball 37. A lower-order collapse - the last five wickets fell for 22 runs - prevented Punjab from reaching a more substantial total.

Tanvir and Shoaib took two wickets each but the Federal Areas bowling was unable to keep the runs under control and Punjab scored at a brisk 3.70 runs per over.