Fiery Ali Gouhar leads PIA to their first win in Patron's Trophy Grade I

Ali Gouhar, the right-handed pace man, unleashed an exhibition of devastating fast bowling at the Shahi Bagh Stadium, Peshawar to help Pakistan International Airlines earn their first win in the Patron's Trophy (Grade I) competition. To further add to the magnitude of this win, the losing side was no other than Habib Bank, the leaders of the tournament so far.

The pace man hailing from Sakkar, a city in lower Sindh, took seven wickets in the first innings and five again in the second to return with match figures of 12 for 89. However, with only more rounds to go, PIA have very bleak chances of qualifying for the final of this elite tournament.

Winning the toss on a green and bouncy track of his home ground, the HBL captain Kabir Khan made the fatal mistake to bat first. PIA attack led by Ali Gouhar took just - overs to restrict HBL to a paltry 106 in their first innings. Ali Gouhar claimed 7 wickets for 41.

PIA replied with 220 in their first innings, with Ghulam Ali (60) and Mahmood Hamid (38) making useful contributions to the total. Kabir Khan, a veteran of 4 tests and 10 ODIs, bowled well for his side, claiming five for 42.

HBL batsmen had barely overcome the shocks of the first innings when Ali Gouhar struck again like lightening. He bagged 5 wickets for 48 as HBL bettered their first innings total by 36 runs. Nadeem Afzal also bowled with nagging line and length, taking three wickets for 46.

Requiring 29 to win, PIA lost three wickets for just 14. However, the target was too low to raise any concerns. Asif Mujtaba, the skipper, and Sohail Jaffer batted carefully to eventually see their side through.

The second match of this round between Customs and Agricultural Bank (ADBP) was also played on a seamer-friendly Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad pitch. And again like the previous match, the team winning the toss went on to lose the match.

Put into bat by ADBP, Pakistan Customs managed only 149 in their first innings, thanks to some fine bowling from pace men Iftikhar Anjum (5 for 53) and Fahad Masood (4 for 54).

Failing to capitalize on their bowlers' effort, ADBP could make only 175, as their batsmen capitulated under pressure applied by the pace trio of Customs. Nadeem Iqbal took five wickets for 68, whereas Naved-ul-Hasan, and Stephen John bagged three and two wickets each.

Customs scored 232 in their second innings, which contained top score of 88 by Naved Latif. Nasim Khan and Ali Naqvi contributed with 34 and 25, respectively.

Requiring a modest looking 207 to win, the ADBP batsmen failed to gather their act together as they were all out for 143 in their second innings, thus, conceding the match by 63 runs. Iftikhar Anjum, yet again proved their main destroyer. He improved upon his previous innings figures, taking 6 for 82.

Wapda beat Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) by 7 wickets in the third encounter of the sixth round played at the KRL Ground in Rawalpindi.

The winning team mustered 182 after restricting the opposition to 130 in their first innings. Kashif Raza, the right-handed seam bowler, bagged six wickets for 59.

Already under the deficit of 52 runs, the KRL batsmen came under pressure from the start of the their second innings. Mohammad Wasim, the skipper, and all-rounder Naeem Akhtar, managed to sustain the innings for some time with worthwhile contributions of 33 and 24, before the whole team was all out for 148.

Wapda lost three wickets before Adil Nisar (45 not out) and Tariq Aziz (12) led Wapda through to the victory target of 100.

Gaining full 12 points from the match, Wapda go into the next round with 22 points in their bag.

National Bank batsmen had probably the most enjoyable time of all in their match against the ADBP, during the fifth round of the competition.

After restricting the opposition to 188 in their first innings, they piled up 376, thanks to the fifty-plus knocks by Qaisar Abbas (66), Akhtar Sarfraz (71) and Naumanullah (71).

It was then their bowler's turn to put the last nail in ADBP's coffin. Led by Aleem Moosa (7 for 81), they restricted the opposition to just 197 in their second innings before reaching the required target of 10 runs in two over without losing a wicket.

The seventh round of the competition starts from the 26th of March.