Sports Correspondent

LAHORE, Sept 1: Sparkling century by captain Imran Nazir (141) guided the Lahore City Cricket Association Blues to pile up 284 in their first innings against Peshawar on the first day of the three-day match of National Junior Grade-II Championship at the lively wicket of the LCCA ground on Tuesday.

At the stumps, Peshawar were looked in trouble losing their two wickets for 49 in 16 overs. Both the wickets were claimed by promising paceman Aasim Iqbal for 19. He bowled with perfect pace on the newly-laid wicket.

Peshawar's Raziq Khan, who had cracked three fours and one six in his 29, will resume the innings with Ahmad Kundi (0) tomorrow morning. Muhammad Fayyaz scored 15 and Aasim earned duck.

Sent in to bat first by Peshawar's captain Zulifqar Jan the LCCA, after a poor start (three for 40) remarkably recovered before they were all out for 284 with 8-1 overs to spare of the full quota of 80 over.

Imran Nazir came at the crease when Mahboob Ali Shah (1), Atif Ijaz (5) and Khurram Shafique (16) were back in the pavilion. Playing a captain knock, Imran Nazir cracked 23 boundaries from 147 balls. He played the key roles in two main partnerships of the innings. First, Imran in the fourth wicket partnership with Zeeshan Zameer (28, with two fours), plundered 97 runs in 90 minutes. Another 49-run fifth-wicket partnership between Imran Nazir and Imran Ashraf (9) raised the total to 186. Imran Nazir was eventually caught and bowled by paceman Nauman Habib at the total of 228.

Rizwan Arshed (35 not out) and Furqan Butt (14) contributed useful runs.

For the visitors, paceman Nauman Habib took five wickets for 84. His fellow-paceman Waqar Ahmad and leg-spinner Ibrar Ahmad earned two wickets each for 79 and 25 runs respectively.

Earlier, two teams from Peshawar, claiming themselves as genuine team of Peshawar city cricket association, reached at the ground. However, the match-referee Iqbal Sheikh allowed the team to play which produced to him the official letter of Pakistan Cricket Board.