Date-stamped : 19 Oct97 - 06:25 Day 1 Report ABL let Customs off the hook By Our Sports Reporter KARACHI, Oct 18: Discarded Test batsman Azam Khan snatched the initiative from Allied Bank to place Pakistan Customs in a comfortable position at stumps on the first day of the four-day Patron's Trophy match at the UBL Sports Complex. Azam, who played a Test against Zimbabwe last year, was batting on a fighting 88 that helped Customs post a decent 273 for four against an international bowling attack spearheaded by the Test pace trio of Aqib Javed, Ataur Rahman and Aamir Nazir. Customs, after a cautious start, looked in hot waters when they lost the wickets of Rana Qayyumul Hasan (30) and 16-year-old sensation Hasan Raza on successive balls to slump to 113 for three. But Azam, supported by Ameeruddin and Saad Wasim, held the innings together. For the fourth wicket, Azam added 56 runs while for the unfinished fifth wicket with Wasim, the right-hander has put on 104 runs in 95 minutes. Azam had his share of luck too. At 22, he was dropped in the slips by Iqbal Salim off Ataur Rahman while the next time Ata showed greasy palms to floor Azam when he was 69 off Arshad Khan. Nevertheless, Azam's innings was a gutsy one and was a mixture of aggression and defence. His cool and calculated 124-ball knock is studded with nine blistering boundaries and sixes off Arshad Khan and Aamir Sohail. Azam had reached his half century from 78 balls with six boundaries and a six. Azam, who lost his greatest motivator in the shape of his father in July, said: "It has been a very difficult time to adjust after his (father's) death. He was a real inspiration to me." It was after a long time that the famous and respected figure of Akram Khan (Azam's father) was missed. The former star allrounder of the local association, was a regular visitor at the venues to watch the day's proceedings before taking his son to a side to discuss about the day's play and in the meantime pointing out his mistakes. Besides Azam, Saad Wasim also batted splendidly with some improvised shots to contributed a much needed unbeaten 35 from 99 balls. His innings is laced with two boundaries and a six off Aamir Sohail. Earlier in the day, Ameeruddin neutralised the advantage Allied Bank had of winning the toss and putting Customs into bat. The tall opener hit a dodged 50 that came off 172 balls with seven boundaries. Ameeruddin occupied the crease for 233 minutes. After an opening wicket partnership of 38 with Azhar Shafiq (20), Ameeruddin shared in a 75-run second wicket partnership with Rana Qayyumul Hasan whose 82-ball 30 included three hits to the fence. Other than some spirited batting, the Allied Bank bowlers bowled really hard on a seaming track and also missed the edge quite often but failed to grab wickets. Aamir Nazir tried harder than anyone else and in the end conceded 22 no-ball runs to Customs who got a cushion of 50 extras, including 34 runs off no-balls. In domestic cricket, each no-ball has a penalty of two runs. However, Nazir finished as the most successful Allied Bank bowler with two wickets for 67 runs while the other two wickets went to Ataur Rahman and Aamir Hanif. ABL touch rock-bottom KARACHI, Oct 19: Pacemen Nadeem Iqbal and Azhar Shafiq demolished a star-studded Allied Bank batting to help Pakistan Customs bowl out the national one-day champions for a paltry 62 on the second day of the four-day Patron's Trophy game at the UBL Sports Complex. The woes of the bankers continued when Ali Raza picked up three more wickets after they were forced to follow-on by Pakistan Customs. At stumps, Allied Bank were 146 for three and required another 115 runs to avert an innings defeat. Manzoor Akhtar (42) and Aamir Hanif (20) will resume the banks innings on Monday. Iqbal and Shafiq bowled unchanged to equally share the 10 wickets between them as the bank's innings folded 100 minutes after lunch in just 25.1 overs. Iqbal turned almost unplayable when he conceded just 14 runs in his 13-over spell to captured five wickets. Shafiq was also destructive when he grabbed five wickets for 23 runs in 10.1 overs. Earlier in the morning, Pakistan Customs resumed their first innings at 273 for four and were bowled out for 323 after 95 minutes of batting. Azam Khan ran out of fortunes at crucial time when he was caught by Rashid Latif off Aqib Javed for a well-played 92. His innings sparkled with nine boundaries and two sixes. On Sunday, he faced 18 balls. Saad Wasim, who was overnight 35, however, completed an enterprising 52, laced with four boundaries and a six. He batted for 141 minutes and faced 138 balls. Aqib Javed bowled his heart out to snap up five out of the six Customs first innings wickets. He finished with five wickets for 77 runs but all his efforts went down the drain by some reckless, irresponsible and senseless batting by the batsmen. Aamir Nazir picked up the last wicket to end up with three for 81 but the most encouraging sign was that he didn't bowl any more no-balls to his 11 on Saturday. Day 4 report Aqib, Ata bowl ABL to an incredible win By Our Sports Reporter KARACHI, Oct 21: Test duo of Aqib Javed and Ataur Rahman bowled Allied Bank to an incredible 87-run victory over Pakistan Customs on the final day of the four-day Patron's Trophy at the UBL Sports Complex here on Tuesday. Aqib Javed captured five wickets for 31 runs and Ata grabbed four wickets for 32 runs as Customs were bundled out for a paltry 80 in the first session of play. Customs were chasing a modest victory target of 168 after they had scored 323 runs in their first innings and had then fired out Allied Bank for 62 in their first knock. It was a brilliant combined effort of the Allied Bank team which includes several of Pakistan's international players. After being forced to follow on with chips down, Aamir Hanif scored 153 priceless runs and received excellent support from Manzoor Akhtar, Rashid Latif and Aqib Javed to help the bankers muster 428. And then the bankers held some spectacular catches to extend full support to Aqib Javed and Ataur Rahman. Wicketkeeper Rashid Latif held four catches behind the stumps but the catch held by Alay Haider of Qaisar Mahmood was the most outstanding one. Fielding at forward short-leg, Haider picked up the catch after Mahmood had played a full-bladed on-drive off Ataur Rahman. Aqib Javed served yet another reminder to the national selectors with some hostile bowling. Aqib had also claimed five wickets for 77 runs in the first innings which gave him a match-haul of 10 wickets for 108 runs. Nevertheless, it was a belated reminder as the selectors called paceman Shahid Nazir for the third Test starting at Faisalabad from Oct 24. Nazir bagged six wickets for 145 runs for Habib Bank in a drawn match with National Bank. Aqib Javed, for reasons unknown, is being labelled as a one-day specialist. In the last six Tests he has played for Pakistan, he has claimed 29 wickets, including 16 wickets in his last series against Sri Lanka two years ago. Last season, the 26-year-old pacer snapped up 60 odd wickets in the first-class season but was only recalled for one-dayers. In that too, he celebrated his recall by emerging as the leading wicket-taker in India's Independence Cup with 11. Against India at Hyderabad, he was the Man-of-the-Match with a haul of four wickets. "My job is to perform and I am doing that. It's upto the selectors to select me or not. If they are not selecting me, you better question them instead of coming to me," Javed said. "I think at the moment, I am at my best. I am swinging the ball, bowling yorkers, bouncers and doing everything which a genuine fast bowler should do," he stated. Aqib Javed destroyed the top order when got four out of the five batsmen to ease the job for Ataur Rahman who removed the lower order. Ataur Rahman, who has 45 wickets in 14 Tests, bowled intelligently when he made the batsmen play on a difficult seaming track. The match was an amazing contract for 16-year-old sensation Hasan Raza. After becoming the youngest-ever double century maker last week, he could score only 0 and 2. Azam Khan, who had scored 92 in the first innings, was the second best scorer for Customs with 17. Qaisar Mahmood, the wicketkeeper, top scored with 22. By this victory, Allied Bank secured 10 valuable points. Source:: Dawn (http://dawn.com/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)