Sialkot hold on to top spot after eighth-round draw

Group B ranking leaders Sialkot held on to their top position as they drew their eighth-round, four-day match in the 2008-09 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship, sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), against Abbottabad at the Sheikhupura Stadium on Tuesday.Only 12.4 overs play was possible on the final day yesterday, as Abbottabad took their overnight second innings score of 157 for four to an eventual 177-5 before the match was called off due to poor weather.Abbottabad opener Hammad Ali remained unbeaten with 85 runs, scored off 180 balls in four and a quarter hours with 12 fours. His team’s overall lead was just 35 runs though with half the side back in the pavilion.Sialkot claimed three points through their first innings lead, taking their tally to 42 from seven matches. Of these they have won four, lost one and drawn two.Karachi Blues averted defeat in style, as they scored 412 runs for nine wickets in their follow-on innings against Faisalabad at Sport Stadium Sargodha, thus earning a creditable draw. In fact they were 182 runs ahead at the end with one wicket still standing.Faisalabad took the three points on offer though. For Karachi, 23-year-old left-hander Shaharyar Ghani contributed a magnificent 181 not out, his career-best knock and his second hundred in first-class cricket.Shaharyar faced 333 balls for his innings and stayed at the crease for just over six and three-quarter hours hitting 25 fours and three sixes. With Faraz Patel (59), his fifth-wicket stand was worth 124 runs.For the sixth wicket, Shaharyar and wicket-keeper Owais Rehmani, 54 off 63 balls with four fours, helped add another 92 runs. A further 95 runs were made by the later order as Shaharyar remained unbeaten till the end.Amidst the carnage, Faisalabad’s 19-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler Zahoor Khan stood tall. In the second Blues innings, he captured a career-best seven wickets for 86 runs which, coupled with his first innings 5-31 gave him a match haul of 12 for 117. At Niaz Stadium Hyderabad, the host team failed to overhaul Rawalpindi’s first innings 481, as they were bowled out for 422 runs in reply which gave the visitors three points while they retained their second position on the points table.Hyderabad’s 18-year-old opening batsman Azeem Ghumman missed his career’s maiden double hundred by a solitary run, his 199 coming off 422 balls in three minutes short of 10 hours with 17 fours.By the close of play, Rawalpindi made 90 for no wicket in 19 overs, with stand-in skipper Babar Naeem hammering 52 not out off a mere 64 balls with four fours and a six.Only 46 overs play was possible at Arbab Niaz Stadium Peshawar, where Lahore Ravi earned three points for first innings lead in the drawn fixture against Peshawar.Lahore Ravi’s overnight 116-0 was extended to 205 for six before skipper Junaid Zia applied closure. Needing 192 runs to win, Peshawar could only make 87 runs while losing two wickets.Peshawar’s left-arm pace bowler Waqar Ahmed meanwhile finished with 10 wickets in the match. In the two Lahore innings, he picked up 6-120 and 4-76.Islamabad had gone up to third place in the Group B table after their massive innings and 415 runs triumph over bottom-placed Quetta at the Diamond Club Ground Islamabad on Monday. Victory was gained inside three days of the match.The ninth-round matches of the tournament will get under way at various centres around the country from Friday, February 13.Scores: Abbottabad 243 in 76.2 overs (Adnan Raees 45, Rashid Mansoor 68) and 177-5 in 60.4 overs (Hammad Ali 85*, Ghulam Mohammad 40). Sialkot 385 in 103.4 overs (Naeemuddin 112, Ayub Dogar 73, Haaris Sohail 43, Extras 40). Faisalabad 388 in 145.3 overs (Imran Ali 55, Usman Arshad 81, Zeeshan Asif 80, Mohammad Salman 93). Karachi Blues 158 in 33.2 overs (Shahzaib Hasan 63; Zahoor Khan 5-31) and, after following on, 412-9 in 116 overs (Shaharyar Ghani 181*, Faraz Patel 59, Owais Rehmani 54; Zahoor Khan 7-86).Rawalpindi 481 in 135.5 overs (Zahid Mansoor 146, Usman Saeed 144, Yasim Murtaza 75) and 90-0 in 19 overs (Babar Naeem 52*). Hyderabad 422 in 171.1 overs (Azeem Ghumman 199, Lal Kumar 43; Qamar Abbas 4-76). Lahore Ravi 362 in 95.2 overs (Sohail Ahmed 73, Kashif Siddiq 66, Ashraf Ali 77, Ali Haider 53; Waqar Ahmed 6-120) and 205-6 dec in 48 overs (Kashif Siddiq 66, Mohammad Sohail 71, Waqar Ahmed 4-76). Peshawar 348 in 117.1 overs (Mohammad Idrees 91, Jamaluddin 96, Mahfooz Sabri 41; Junaid Zia 5-87) and 87-2 in 22 overs.