Mohammad Sami takes 5 wickets, leads his team to victory. This can only mean one thing: sooner or later selectors will try to push him into the Pakistan side. A sad day indeed.
Sami bowls Karachi Blues to victory
Saturday, 07 Nov, 2009
KARACHI: Pakistan discard Mohammad Sami grabbed his first five-wicket haul this season to lead Karachi Blues to a hard-fought victory over Multan in the RBS Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship’s Group ‘B’ match at the National Stadium here on Friday.
Sami, the 28-year-old fast bowler who played in the defunct rebel Indian Cricket League after representing Pakistan in 33 Tests and 83 One-day Internationals, captured 5-48 in 18.3 overs as Multan went down by 25 runs on the final day of the four-day fixture.
Resuming at 99-3 while chasing 316 for victory, Multan were on course to achieve their target when Naved Yasin and Ali Niazi shared a superb fifth-wicket partnership of 146 after Rameez Alam was out for 61 (119 balls, 12 fours).
But paceman Tanvir Ahmed, the leading championship’s wicket-taker, broke the threatening stand by removing Ali Niazi for 77 (110 balls, 11 boundaries).
Sami then bowled Naved, who made 113 in the first innings, for a defiant 84 (173 balls, 13 fours) as Multan lost their last six wickets for just 26 runs.The win puts Karachi Blues back on top of their group with 36 points.
Meanwhile, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) maintained their winning sequence in Group ‘A’ after defeating KRL by six wickets at the latter’s stadium.
Habib Bank, inspired by medium-pacer Sarmad Anwar’s career-best 6-70, beat ZTBL by 83 runs at the Marghzar Ground in Islamabad to draw level on points with SNGPL. Both teams have secured 33 points but the bankers have played an extra game to SNGPL’s four.
Islamabad’s medium-pacer Shahzad Azam also recorded his best figures as he claimed 7-36 (match figures of 11-157) to help his team end their winless run in an emphatic innings and 70-run demolition of Faisalabad at the Diamond Club Ground in the federal capital.
Our Sports Reporter adds from Lahore: PIA’s hopes of improving their position on the points table received a huge setback when Wapda whipped them by 141 runs at the Gaddafi Stadium.
PIA, chasing 279, crashed to 137 all out in the second innings after starting the last day at 17-0. Only Fahad Iqbal made a noteworthy contribution of 40 while the in-form Test opener Khurram Manzoor failed for the second time in the match when he was dismissed by lanky left-arm speedster Sarfraz Ahmed for five.
Sarfraz took 3-22 to finish with match bag of 8-62. The result also helped Wapda improve their position to fifth place from a poor seventh. PIA who were joint leaders before this round, now drop down to fourth place.
National Bank are only three points adrift of SNGPL and Habib Bank after completing a resounding innings and 68-run win over Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) with medium-pacer Uzair-ul-Haq taking his maiden 10-wicket match haul (11-105). Uzair, who took 5-40 in the first innings, snared career-best 6-65 as SSGC were all out for 191.
The high-scoring Group ‘B’ tie between Hyderabad and Lahore Ravi at the LCCA Ground ended in a draw with the visitors batting throughout the final day to reach 346-9 after starting at 61-4. The saviours for Hyderabad, who earned three points, were Lal Kumar (87) and Mir Ali Talpur (79) with their highest first-class scores.
signs look not good for our circket