At the end of round four, the Patron?s Trophy Grade-I Tournament is taking up shape according to form and strength of the teams. Interestingly, due to the upcoming Sharjah Cup the stronger teams like PIA, KRL and HBL and are expected to suffer as their star players are called up for international duty. This will mean some reduction in their supremacy in the next rounds to allow the ?weaker? sides to gain some points. Right now, KRL and PIA are at the top with 27 points each but Customs, NBP and PWD are in the running with 24 points each followed by ADBP with 21 points.

KRL-PIA
KRL did get three points in an important but drawn match against PIA, a far stronger team, after fighting through for a 1st innings lead. KRL won the toss and elected to bowl and restricted PIA to 383. Moin Khan played a captain?s innings of 119 runs to help his side to 383, while Jaffer Nazir took 4 wickets for KRL. KRL batted well and scored 487 runs taking a lead of 104. Ali Naqvi scored 81 and Saeed Bin Nasir hit 95. Fazl-e-Akbar and Abdur Razzaq took 4 wickets each. At the end PIA had scored 293 runs in their 2nd innings losing wickets. Faisal Iqbal was the top batsman with a fine 106.

ABL-HBL
The ?bankers match? was drawn. HBL managed three points because of their 1st innings lead. HBL won the toss and decided to bat and scored freely reaching 489 with the help of Imran Farhat?s 160. ABL replied with 344 and Ijaz Ahmed Jr hit a century but yielded a lead of 145. In their 2nd innings HBL declared at 207 for 7 and set a target of 353 but at the close of the match ABL had scored 160, losing only 1 wicket.

ADBP-WAPDA
ADBP defeated WAPDA by 134 runs after WAPDA had won the toss and bowled ADBP out for 244 in the 1st innings. Inam-ul-Haq was top scorer with 70, while Kashif Raza took 4 wickets. WAPDA managed only 187 in their 1st innings while ADBP scored 254 runs in their 2nd setting a target of 312 runs. WAPDA could not reach it and were bowled out for 177. Iftikhar Anjum was the main destroyer and grabbed 7 wickets.

CUSTOMS-SGCP
Pakistan Customs won by 67 runs. SGCP won the toss and decided to bowl and allowed Pakistan Customs to reach only 204. Abdur Rauf and Azhar Abbas took 4 wickets each. Pakistan Customs came back strongly and bowled SGCP out for 161. Waqar Ahmed was main striker and took 5 wickets but Customs managed a lead of 43 runs over SGCP. Azhar Abbas took 6 wickets and bowled Pakistan Customs out at 145 in their 2nd innings. SGCP had to score only 189 runs in their 2nd innings to win the match, but SGCP?s inexperience showed and they could not handle the pressure and gave in at 121. Waqar Ahmed and Azhar Shafiq took 3 wickets each.

NBP-PWD
PWD won by 2 wickets after winning the toss and offering NBP first strike. NBP had scored 213 in their 1st innings. Naumanullah and Qaiser Abbas were top scorers, both falling in the sixties, while Ali Raza took 4 wickets. PWD was bowled out by NBP at 160 in their 1st innings and Mohammad Sami took 5 wickets. NBP in their 2nd innings scored 196 and set a 250 run target. PWD batted with confidence and achieved it at the loss of 8 wickets. Bazid Khan played a major hand by scoring 61 in that victory.

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