CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

Karachi, Oct 26: Former champions Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) showed a chicken-hearted approach and squandered an opportunity to beat Pakistan Customs in the four-day Quaid-i-Azam Trophy game which ended in a draw at the National Stadium on Tuesday.

Set a challenging victory target of 235 in a maximum of 35 overs, PIA, who are also the national one-day champions, never pressed for victory and settled for just three points for taking first innings lead.

It was disappointing to see the game plan of the national carrier's players who never seemed to be interested in going for a kill after dominating the match for the first three days.

The target might have been difficult but the wicket was good and the outfield fast. Had PIA made a brave attempt, score of around 50 in the last five or six overs would not have been too difficult a task.

On the contrary, Customs deserved full marks for making a sporting declaration and setting PIA a challenging target.

Customs could have opted for a draw after a courageous rearguard fightback led by Azam Khan had put them in a safe position. But they kept the match alive only to find that their much stronger and experienced opponents had opted for a cautious approach.

PIA not only played out for a draw but in the process they lost three wickets when the match ended. Rizwanuz Zaman (5), Kashif Siddiq (38) and Zahid Fazal (3) were the casualties.

The putrid performance by PIA had only hurt its own reputation of being the best team in the domestic circuit. Besides, it only proved that they excel when their team includes the national players. Their star-studded side won the national one-day competition, which concluded only three weeks ago.

Test spinner Nadeem Khan bowled superbly but without support from the other end.

Nadeem bowled 45 marathon overs to be rewarded with four wickets for 94 runs. In the entire match, the left-arm spinner bowled 73.1 overs to finish with eight for 177.

While PIA's poor fourth day's performance cannot be left unscathed, credit cannot be withheld from Customs batsmen, specially Azam Khan, who showed a lot of guts and maturity to pull his team out of woods.

Azam Khan, who was 22 overnight, was dismissed after scoring a match-saving 72 off 167 deliveries which included five fours. He remained at the crease for 214 minutes.

Azam, who had scored 89 in the first innings, featured in a 74-run sixth wicket stand with Naveed Latif. Naveed's contribution was 32 that included five hits to the fence.

Shakil Ansar, who came to the crease when Customs were reduced to 216 for seven, frustrated the opposition for 99 minutes. He and Mohammad Sami added 43 runs for the unfinished ninth wicket in 54 minutes.

Shakil remained undefeated on 41 off 102 balls with the aid of four fours and a six.