Karachi Whites facing defeat

Lahore, Nov 18: Karachi Whites were heading towards their first defeat of the season after struggling to 82 for six in their second innings on third day of the Quaid-i-Azam Cricket Trophy Grade I match against Lahore Blues at the LCCA Ground on Saturday.

On his first-class debut, young right-arm seamer Asim Iqbal claimed six important wickets to restrict the Karachi Blues to 222 in the first innings. That gave Lahore Blues a vital lead of 69 runs. Asif Mujtaba hit a captain's knock of 82 not out while Test opener Ghulam Ali scored 57.

On Saturday morning, Karachi Whites pacemen, spearheaded by Muhammad Zahid Junior (who took five wickets), hit back by getting the Lahore Blues out in second knock at the paltry total of 170 in 54.1 overs. Bazid Khan saved Lahore Blues from disaster by scoring a 132-minute 50 with the help of six boundaries and a six.

Asim's fellow seamer Adnan Naeem sent the visitors reeling in cloudy weather by claiming four middle-order batsmen like Hasan Raza (8), skipper Asif Mujtaba (0), Mahmood Hamid (0) and Atiq-uz-Zaman (6). Opener Mohammad Ghazan (48 in 133 minutes) and Kashif Ibrahim (0) will resume Karachi Whites' struggle to avoid defeat as the team still needs 157 runs to level the score but has four wickets in hand.