Abid scores ton to guide Federal Areas to easy win

KARACHI: Abid Ali hammered a superb century and then the bowlers did a fine job to enable Federal Areas to pull off their second successive victory as they routed Sindh by 149 runs in their day-night match of the Pakistan Cup National One-day Cricket Championship at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad, on Sunday.Abid smashed 109 and guided Federal Areas to 242-8 in the stipulated 50 overs after being asked to bat first by Sindh skipper Umar Amin.Sindh were folded for 93 in 31 overs thanks to brilliant bowling from left-arm pacer Waqas Maqsood and spinner Agha Salman.Chasing a tricky target Sindh had a brittle start to their innings as they lost four quick wickets.Agha got rid of both openers, Salman Butt (18) and skipper Umar Amin (12), before spinner Raza Hasan bowled Test cricketer and the last match centurion Iftikhar Ahmed (11) to leave Sindh reeling at 55-3 in the 16th over. The former Pakistan captain Butt smacked three fours in his run-a-ball knock. Ramiz Aziz (3) joined Khurram Shehzad but fast bowler Umaid Asif removed the former to leave Sindh gasping at 58-4.Test-discard Adnan Akmal (2) then got run out before Raza Hasan had international all-rounder Aamer Yamin (6) to leave Sindh tottering at 74-6. Left-arm pacer Waqas got the vital wicket of Bilal Asif (8) to reduce Sindh to 83-7 in the 27th over.In his next over, Waqas brought Federal Areas closer to victory when he had Mohammad Asghar (2) trapped LBW. Agha got rid of Khurram Shehzad (25), stumped by wicketkeeper Abid Ali. Khurram struck one four from 50 balls.In the next over, Waqas removed Mohammad Irfan (1) to seal a comfortable win for his side.Waqas captured three for 14, while Agha grabbed three for 8. Left-arm leg-spinner Raza Hasan ably backed them by taking two for 33 in ten overs.International all-rounder Aamer Yamin created cracks in Federal Areas’ top order when he had the key man Kamran Akmal (0) off the second ball of the innings before Test seamer Junaid Khan removed Awais Zia for nine.Abid, however, stood like a rock, keeping one end to take his side to a fighting total. Abid smashed 13 fours in his 145-ball sensible century. He shared 58 runs for the third wicket with hard-hitting Pakistan batsman Sohaib Maqsood who chipped in with 40-ball 34, which had two fours and one six. Waqas (29*) and Agha (26) were the others who showed some resistance with the willow.Waqas smashed three fours and one six from 17 balls, while Agha, who remained impressive in the PSL-3, struck one six and one four from 34 deliveries. International left-arm pacer Mohammad Irfan (2-28), spinners Bilal Asif (2-54) and Junaid (2-63) bowled intelligently.Ahmed Shahab and Shozab Reza supervised the match. Ahsan Raza served as the television umpire and Mohammad Sajid acted as the reserve umpire. Mohammad Javed was the match referee. On Monday (today), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will take on Balochistan in an important clash of the five-team event.

from The News International - Sports https://ift.tt/2HAL2PI