Date-stamped : 05 Oct97 - 10:10
05 October 1997

Bilal and Aamir miss centuries by a whisker

By Khalid H. Khan

KARACHI, Oct 4: Underdogs Bahawalpur continued their dominance
against Karachi Blues at the end of the second day's play in the
four-day Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-I National Cricket
Championship match at Asghar Ali Shah Stadium here on Saturday.

Karachi Blues were struggling at 26 for one at stumps in reply
to Bahawalpur's first innings score of 401. Former Test opener
Shoaib Muhammad and Sohail Jaffer safely saw through the final
over of the day after young Test discard Shadab Kabir fell to
off-spinner Murtaza Hussain in the penultimate over when umpire
Feroz Butt adjudged him caught close in on the on-side by Bilal
Khilji for 13. Karachi Blues still require 226 to avert the
possibility of a follow-on but considering the fact that likes
of Basit Ali, skipper Asif Mujtaba, Manzoor Akhtar and Rashid
Latif still to come, that should be no problem because the track
has nothing in it for the bowlers.

Earlier, Bahawalpur cautiously batted themselves into a strong
position, largely due to the overnight pair of Bilal Khilji and
Aamir Bashir. Both were extremely unlucky in missing their
centuries. Having resumed the day at 254 for two, Bahawalpur
carried their score to 328 for four. The men to go were the
left-handed Bilal and wicket-keeper Saifullah.

Bilal added 10 runs to his overnight score before he miscued an
on-drive off Manzoor Akhtar and was caught by Shoaib at short
mid-on for 91. He batted for 311 minutes, faced 272 deliveries
and hit eight fours to better his previous highest score in all
first-class cricket by eight runs in this his 18th such match.
Bilal and Aamir put together 118 in 178 minutes for the third
wicket partnership. Manzoor also accounted for Saifullah when he
trapped him leg-before- wicket with the score at 294. Aamir
Bashir was very selective in his stroke-play and added just 35
runs to his overnight 53 by lunch. But having scored six more
after the interval, Aamir nicked one from pace bowler Lal Faraz
to Rashid Latif behind the stumps for a 226-ball 94. His innings
lasted 262 minutes and included six fours and a six.

Lal Faraz then put Karachi Blues back in the game by picking the
wickets of Murtaza Hussain and Shahzad Arshad in successive
deliveries for noughts as Bahawalpur nosedived to 348 for seven
after being 334 for four. All-rounder Murtaza faced no less than
23 deliveries in his 29- minute stay before Lal Faraz breached
his defence. Next ball, Shahzad gave Rashid another
straightforward catch. However, Rehan Rafiq held the Karachi
bowlers at bay and together with pace bowler Tariq Sarwar, put
on an invaluable partnership of 48 in 101 minutes for the eighth
wicket before the last three wickets tumbled quickly. Rehan
occupied the crease for almost three and a half hours for his
162-ball unbeaten 34 while Tariq faced 68 balls and struck two
fours and a six in his defiant knock of 30.

Between lunch and tea, Bahawalpur batsmen opted to play it safe
rather than accelerate their run-rate and had grafted only 60
runs in the two-hour session. The entire Bahawalpur innings
lasted 605 minutes and 161.1 overs.

For Karachi Blues, Lal Faraz was definitely the pick of the
bowlers on the second day. He bowled ten overs today for 29 runs
and claimed those three wickets.

On another hazy afternoon, Asif Mujtaba relied mainly on his
spinners to do bulk of the work. Left-armer Nadeem Khan sent
down 18.1 overs on Saturday and ended with only two wickets in a
heroic performance since he has still not recovered from a bout
of influenza. Off-spinner Naeem Tayyab bowled 42 overs, mainly
from the College End, but like Nadeem snared just two wickets.


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

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