Ashfaq’s fourth Quaid-e-Azam Trophy century helps Khyber Pakhtunkhwa collect maximum batting points

Lahore:Ashfaq Ahmed joined Sami Aslam and Imran Butt in crossing the 600-run mark with his fourth tournament century, eighth overall, which helped Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to collect maximum batting points against Southern Punjab on the penultimate day of the four-day first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy fixture in Abbottabad on Wednesday.

Ashfaq started at the overnight score of 81 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 162 for two in reply to Southern Punjab’s 338 all out, and was dismissed after scoring 143 that allowed his side to declare their first innings at 417 for five.

This effort meant Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bagged the five available batting points, while Southern Punjab had to content with one bowling point.

When stumps were drawn for the day, Southern Punjab, trailing by 79 runs on the first innings, were 15 for no loss. Sami Aslam (11) and Umer Siddiq (four) will resume their innings on the final morning on Thursday.

Ashfaq is the third batsman after Southern Punjab’s Sami Aslam (683) and Balochistan’s Imran Butt (673) to break the 600-run barrier. The 33-year-old is now the second leading run-getter with 675 runs from nine innings of seven matches.

Salman Butt of Central Punjab (531), Balochistan’s Imran Farhat (525) and Haider Ali of Northern (503) are chasing the top-three.

Ashfaq, playing in his 52nd first-class match, struck 18 fours and a six in his 254-ball innings. After putting on 73 runs for the second-wicket with Sahibzada Farhan on Tuesday, Ashfaq stitched a 114-run partnership for the third wicket with Adil Amin (37).

The other big partnership was for the sixth-wicket between wicketkeeper-batsman Rehan Afridi and Zohaib Khan. The pair added 127 runs without being separated. Rehan returned unbeaten on 87 (14×4, 105b) while Zohaib scored 63 not out (7×4, 130b).

For Southern Punjab, Umaid Asif was the most successful bowler with three for 142.

Scores in brief

Southern Punjab 338 all-out, 100.3 overs (Umar Siddiq 88, Sohaib Maqsood 57, Salman Ali Agha 45, Sami Aslam 38, Zeeshan Ashraf 25; Ahmed Jamal 6-93, Junaid Khan 2-89) and 15-0

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 417-5d, 113 overs (Ashfaq Ahmed 143, Rehan Afridi 84 not out, Zohaib Khan 63 not out, Sahibzada Farhan 47, Adil Amin 37, Fakhar Zaman 23; Umaid Asif 3-142)