Karachi crush Sialkot to lift Quaid Trophy

LAHORE: Karachi Blues defeated Sialkot by 9 wickets in the final of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy played at the Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore.

Karachi Blues had on Day 1 won the toss and elected to field first. The decision paid off as the Karachi bowlers did not let the Sialkot batsmen settle. A good opening spell by Anwer Ali who finished with 4-64 and some tidy bowling by medium pacer Tariq Haroon and spinner Azam Hussain who got 2 wickets each restricted the Stallions to a first innings total of 229.

M.Ayub with 72 (10x4s) and M.Jahangir with 54 (10x4s) were the only batsmen to offer some sort of resistance.

Karachi Blues in reply posted a huge 428 in the first innings mainly due to a superb innings of 178 by Akbar-ur-Rehman laced with 24 boundaries and a six. Azam Hussain remained unbeaten with a well accumulated 74 with 10 fours.

The Sialkot batsmen could not fare any better the second time round. Trying to overcome a 199 run deficit the Stallions crumbled once again under pressure and could manage only 248 in the second innings leaving Karachi to get a mere 50 runs to get an outright win and lift the trophy.

Once again M.Ayub showed some resilience scoring his second half century of the match eventually getting out for 69 with 9 fours. Leg spinner turned batsmen Mansoor Amjad scored 60 with 8 fours and a maximum.

This time the destroyer in chief was Tariq Haroon who dismissed 5 batsmen giving away 74 runs.

Karachi got to the required target losing 1 wicket in the process.

Akbar-ur-Rehman was later declared player on the match for his outstanding hundred.