Silver League final to be replayed March 1

The replay of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Silver League final, between Islamabad and Multan, will now be played at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad over five days, from March 1 to 5.

The original final, scheduled to be played from February 7 to 11, had to be abandoned due to rain on the last two days at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, without a definite result being obtained.

It was decided by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that the final would be replayed since there needed to be one winner who would be promoted to next season's Gold League.

The current rules for the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship Silver League stipulate that the winner of the final gets promoted to the first division irrespective of the points earned in the tournament.

Islamabad, who had topped the Silver League table with 39 points, after four straight wins and a rained-off draw in their five matches in the six-team contest, weren't able to raise a strong enough team for the final as skipper Rao Iftikhar Anjum and star all-rounder Azhar Mahmood had to rush to South Africa, where they were needed to assist the Pakistan team.

A weakened Islamabad attack was hammered to the tune of over 500 runs in the final by Multan. In reply, Islamabad were five down for 212, still needing another 103 runs to avoid the follow-on.

The first innings issue though could not be resolved due to no play being possible on the fourth and fifth days. Conceivably, Islamabad could face the same dilemma all over again. Rao Iftikhar is in the World Cup team and so is Shoaib Akhtar. Azhar Mahmood is on the list of standbyes and he could again be unavailable.

The two umpires named for the Silver League replay final are Iftikhar Malik and Shakeel Khan with Khatib Rizwan nominated as the match referee. Tahir Suhaib will serve as the official scorer.