Northern demolish Sindh to win Quaid-e-Azam title for the first time

Northern fast bowlers Aamer Jamal and Muhammad Musa shared six wickets between them to wipe out the second Sindh innings inside two sessions on the fourth day of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final to lift the trophy for the first time.

They were the favourites to win after ending their first innings on the third evening with a 309-run lead, and when Musa, Jamal and Kashif Ali combined to reduce Sindh to 59 for 6 inside 18 overs on Tuesday, it seemed like the match wouldn't go past lunch. It did, courtesy a century from Fawad Alam and some lower-order hitting from Mohammad Umar and Aaliyan Mehmood, but not for long.

Northern wrapped up the game by an innings and 55 runs after that big first-innings effort, courtesy Muhammad Hurraira's 221, centuries from Umar Amin and Umar Waheed, and Rohail Nazir's 94.

On a foggy morning at Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday, Sindh lost captain Khurram Manzoor on the seventh ball, and had lost Saim Ayub, Saad Khan and Omair Yousuf by the tenth over.

But Fawad - who scored his 43rd first-class century - fought back, first with a 63-run stand with Asif Mehmood (21 off 42) for the seventh wicket and then a 62-run stand with Umar (36 off 31). Fawad became the ninth batter to be dismissed and Aaliyan was the last to go, becoming Musa's third victim, after a 42-ball 33.

It was a stellar season for Northern, where they did lose one game - Sindh and Central Punjab didn't lose even one - but topped the table with 135 points after three wins and six draws.

There were three 600-plus innings totals all tournament, and two of them came from Northern. Hurraira topped the scorers' chart with 1024 runs at an average of 73.14 [he was the top run-getter last season too], and captain Amin was fourth on that list with 774 runs. Among the bowlers, while Sindh's Abrar Ahmed was the most successful this season with 43 wickets, Jamal and Mubasir Khan, the Northern bowlers, came in at No. 2 and No. 3 with 31 wickets apiece.