Fazal’s triple century powers SBP to a huge total

KARACHI:  Abdullah Fazal (309*) hit his maiden first-class triple century to put State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in strong position against Ghani on the third day of their President’s Trophy Grade-1 show at the National Ground in Islamabad on Saturday. Fazal, who was batting on 168 at close on the second day, continued with his solid approach and went on to complete his maiden triple century in the first-class cricket as SBP declared their first innings at 638-5 in response to their opponents’ first innings score of  322. Fazal, who was not out on 168 at stumps on the second day, smashed 29 fours and 11 sixes in his 339-ball knock. He stayed for ten hours and 28 minutes at the crease. He added a record 417 runs for the opening stand with Hasan Raza who fell for 222 after having resumed with his overnight score of 204. Hasan smashed 31 fours and two sixes in his 221-ball fine knock. Kamran Ghulam made 54 off 85 balls with nine fours. Mohammad Ghazi Ghori made 32. Mohammad Abuzar claimed 2-170. Mohammad Abuzar got 2-170 while Khawaja Arham captured 2-9. Having conceded a huge 316-run lead Ghani were 125-2 in their second innings at stumps. At one stage Ghani were reduced to 21-2. However Mohsin Riaz (69*) and Tahir Baig (45*) shared 104 runs for the third wicket unbroken stand to stablisew the innings. Siraj Uddin got 2-21. Meanwhile,  at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium,  Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) forced OGDCL into follow-on. After posting 398 in their first innings, KRL folded OGDCL for 217 to secure a 181-run lead. Mohammad Hammad top-scored 56 while stumper Rohail Nazir (48) and Danish Aziz (40) were the other prominent scorers. Babar Azam could score only 12 runs. Arshad Iqbal was the pick of the bowlers with 5-55 while Ahmed Bashir and Iftikhar Ahmed claimed two wickets each. OGDCL were 34 without loss in their second innings. Earleir, KRL resumed their first innings at 377-8 and were folded for 398. Sarmad Bhatti fell for 136 after adding 14 runs to his overnight score. He struck 23 fours in his superb knock. Muhammad Amir Khan took 2-103. In other show at the Imran Khan Stadium Peshawar, in response to MIT Solutions first innings score of 434-9 declared, SNGPL were bowled out for 233 after resuming with their overnight score of 32-3. Omair Bin Yousuf top-scored 61 which came off 132 balls and had seven fours. Mohammad Imran struck 46 off 71 balls which featured seven fours and one six. Spinner Khalid Usman took 6-64.  MIT Solutions did not force SNGPL to follow-on and rather batted themselves and were 33-1 at close. At the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad Kingsmen Academy reached 568-8 after resuming their first innings at 273-2 in response to PTV’s total of 355 all out. Muhammad Huraira, who was batting on 133, fell for 165 which featured 23 fours and one six. Saud Shakeel belted 100 of 147 balls and had 18 fours. Salman Ali Agha, who had hit triple century in the first round, belted 72 off 104 balls which had ten fours.  Mohammad Shayan chipped in with 57 not out off 48 balls, clobbering eight fours. Kashif Ali was the pick of the bowlers with 2-97.