Yasir strikes 173*; Yamin bags 6-37 on opening day of QAT third round

LAHORE - The opening day of the third round of the Quaid-e- Azam Trophy was headlined by Abbottabad’s Ya­sir Khan and Multan’s Aamer Yamin as the former struck an unbeaten century and the latter bagged a six-for. Yasir struck his maiden first-class cen­tury against Islamabad at the Marghzar Cricket Ground, Islamabad as his unbeaten 173 took Ab­bottabad to a strong total of 375-4 in 90 overs at stumps. The right-handed opening batter, who faced 245 balls striking 22 fours and three sixes, stitched a 95-run stand for the fourth wicket with M Bilal (33) and a 112-run fifth-wicket stand with Ahmed Khan (55) as Abbottabad piled on runs.

Faisalabad’s Ali Shan (95, 156b, 14x4s, 3x6s) fell five runs short of his second first-class century after he stretched his team’s innings from 47-6 to 212 all out in 61.2 overs.For Multan, Aamer Yamin backed up his previousround’s five-for with impressive fig­ures of 6-37 registering his 11th first-class haul of five or more wickets. In reply, Multan scored to 85-1 in 18 overs by close of play after losing opening bat­ter Imran Butt with just 13 runs on the board.

At the Shoaib Akhtar Cricket Stadium in Rawal­pindi, Peshawar dismissed Bahawalpur for a mere 131 in 54 overs with only Mubasir Khan resisting with an unbeaten 88-ball 48 hitting six fours. For Pe­shawar, Sufyan Moqim, M Amir Khan and Niaz Khan dismissed three batters each. In turn, Bahawalpur’s M Imran took four wickets and effected one run out to reduce Peshawar to 59-5 before Waqar Ahmed (65*, 80b, 11x4s) and skipper M Haris (33*) took their team to 125-5 in 31 overs at stumps.

Lahore Whites’ off-spinner Haseeb-ur-Rehm­an (4-47) and pacer M Abbas (2-44) restricted Sialkot to 222 all out in 70.5 overs.Sialkot’s Moh­sin Riaz (76) and Ayaz Tasawar (52) gathered 108 runs for the fourth wicket before they lost seven wickets for 50 runs. In turn, Whites were 38-2 at close of play with opening batter Abid Ali and night watcher Ubaid Shah on the crease.

FATA posted a competitive 312 all out in 77.1 overs at Imran Khan Stadium in Peshawar with the help of half-centuries from M Farooq (75), M Sarwar Afridi (54) and vital contribution from Re­han Afridi (38) and skipper Khushdil Shah (34). For Karachi Blues, M Asghar, Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqib Khan snapped three wickets each.

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