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Left-arm spinner Arif Mahmood led a spirited Karachi Whites fight back against Faisalabad on the opening day of the four-day Quaid-i-Azam Trophy match at the National Stadium Tuesday.

Arif captured five wickets for 43 runs from 25 overs as Faisalabad were dismissed for 223, 11 balls before stumps after sitting pretty at 133 for at one stage.

Faisalabad trail Karachi Whites by 12 points. The visitors need an outright victory to send panic in Karachi camp who, if win this game, will all but secure a place in the final.

Helped by some poor bowling by Karachi pacers, Faisalabad, put into bat on a pitch that looked to have something for the fast bowlers, saw off the crucial first session at 84 for two wickets having lost Test discard Mohammad Ramazan and Zahoor Elahi.

They seemed to be heading for a respectable first innings score when Arif got his acts together and triggered a collapse that saw the tourists lose eight wickets for 90 runs that put hosts on top.

If Arif was fortunate to earn a decision against Mohammad Ramazan, who was adjudged caught in the first slip after it appeared that the ball had taken the boot, his remaining four wickets were victims of fine bowling on a wicket which did not offer much assistant to the spinners.

He had dangerman Samiul Haq stumped before getting rid of Fida Hussain, Sohail Nazir, Aqeel Ahmad and Aqeel Ahmad. Sami was smartly stumped by Moin Khan after scoring a sedate 103-ball 61 that contained 10 boundaries.

Off-spinner Irfanuddin bagged two wickets for 20 runs while Tanvir Ahmed, Tabish Khan and Imran Javed share one apiece. Tabish was lucky to have Zahoor Elahi caught by Masroor.

After Faisalabad were reduced to 149 for five, Mohammad Salman (20) and Nadeem Afzal (21) made valuable contributions that brought stability to the tourists eventual score.

© Dawn