Date-stamped : 23 Nov97 - 14:25
Day 1 Report- Dawn

Mujtaba and Rizwan rescue PIA

By Our Sports Reporter

LAHORE, Nov 22: A resolute third wicket partnership of 118 runs
in 121 minutes between Rizwanuzzaman (91) and Asif Mujtaba (38)
rescued PIA from complete collapse as the airlines scored 260
for six in 79 overs against the NBP when umpires ruled stoppage
of the game due to bad light on first day of the Patron's Trophy
Grade I match at the Qadhafi Stadium on Saturday.

The National Bank captain Shahid Anwar won the toss and put PIA
in to bat first.The main tormentor of the NBP first innings,
paceman Athar Laeeq, may be out of action for a while as he
would be having foot-surgery in Karachi. His swollen foot-vein
has been bothering him and specialists have advised him surgery.
Athar told this reporter that he was rushing back to Karachi on
Saturday night. However,the NBP skipper's decision paid off when
the PIA opener Babar Zaman (15 in 48 minutes) was caught by
Muhammad Javed off the young left-arm medium-pacer Naeem Ashraf
at the total of 30. Sohail Jafar (laborious 9 in 130 minutes)
was caught by wicketkeeper Wasim Arif off medium-pacer Aleem
Musaatthe total of 65. The PIA looked in trouble!

Once Test opener Rizwanuzzaman, scorer of many centuriesin
first-class cricket, and solid left-hand batsman Asif Mujtaba
started to repair the PIA innings and managed to take the PIA
totalto 183 before being separated. Rizwan was unlucky to miss
his century by nine runs. He was beaten by an inswinger from
international right-arm medium-pacer Zafar Iqbal as he went on
his backfoot and was adjudged leg before. Rizwan hit1 4 elegant
boundaries during his sedate knock of 91. He stayed at the
crease for 229 minutes and played 156 deliveries.

Four more runs had been added to the PIA total when Asif Mujtaba
was also caught by wicketkeeper Wasim Arif off the delivery of
Zafar Iqbal. Asif Mujtaba stayed at the wicket for 130 minutes,
played 81 balls and hit three fours in his useful knock.

The NBP medium-pacers Muhammad Javed and Captain Shahid Anwar,
bowled with sustained hostility and did not allow the PIA
batsmen to prop up the innings thereafter. Another Test discard,
the PIA Captain Aamir Malik, could score 11 runs before being
caught by Tahir Shah off Zafar Iqbal to give him his second
wicket. Mahmood Hamid hit three boundaries in his knock of 27
before being adjudged lbw to Muhammad Javed. He played 56 balls
in his stay of 53 minutes at the crease. The sixth PIA wicket
fell at 230. Wicketkeeper/batsman Javed Qadeer(13) and Test star
Saqlain Mushtaq (10) will resume the PIA innings tomorrow.

Source::  Dawn (http://dawn.com/)

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