QEA Trophy Round-Up: Batmen pile on the runs

The domination of bat over ball continued on day one of the second round of Quaid e Azam (QeA) Trophy matches. Five centuries were scored across matches as bowler struggled to adapt to flatter wickets and Kookaburra balls.

In Karachi at the UBL Sports Complex Sindh had a strong batting performance scoring 254 runs for the loss of just two wickets against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Opener Omair Yousuf scored an unbeaten ton, while Asad Shafiq finished the day on 68 not out. Khurram Manzoor and Saad Ali were the two batsmen dismissed during the day, both falling to off-spin of Adil Amin. Table-toppers Khyber Pakhtunkhwa struggled to get a breakthrough on a slow wicket all day.

In Faisalabad, Central Punjab motored along finishing on 365/5 against Northern thanks to a mammoth partnership between Kamran Akmal and Azhar Ali. Things started well for Northern as young pacer Mohammad Musa picked up three wickets and left-arm spinner Raza Hasan got the 4th wicket to leave Central Punjab in trouble at 134/4. However, veteran wicketkeeper, Kamran Akmal launched a counter-attacking knock. With luck on his side, he along with Azhar Ali took the game away from Northern. Akmal was stumped on the last ball of the day to Nauman Ali. Having given over 4.2 runs per over on day 1, Northern would be hoping to wrap up the innings soon on day 2.

QEA Trophy Round-Up: All Three Matches End in Draws

The third game of the day was played in Quetta, between Balochistan and Southern Punjab. Balochistan started well with a 129 run partnership between Imran Butt (66) and centurion Azeem Ghumman. Left-arm spinner Mohammad Irfan bagged Imran Butt and Abubakar Khan at the score of 129 to put some pressure on the batting side. However, former Pakistan batsman Imran Farhat knitted a century and kept the bowlers at bay. He finally fell for 117 to Bilawal Bhatti, who soon also picked Hussain Talat. Balochistan finished the day at 347/4. Amad Butt who has been tipped by many for national selection would be hoping to make an impression with the bat tomorrow for Balochistan.

The general impression was that the curators did try to leave some grass on the pitches, however, batsmen were able to play out the new ball and cashed in later.