Nauman leads Northern to first win of the season

Karachi:Nauman Ali took four wickets to lead Northern to their first win in the first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy as Sindh were bowled out for 199 runs in their second innings to suffer a heavy 145-run defeat on an exciting fourth and final day’s play of the seventh round match played at the National Stadium, Karachi on Thursday.

Set a difficult victory target of 345 runs, Sindh were bowled out in the final session to remain winless in the competition as Nauman finished with four for 51 to follow-up on his first innings haul of five for 58.

The Northern skipper and left-arm-spinner finished with match figures of nine for 109 as only Khurram Manzoor (35), Anwar Ali (32), Rameez Aziz (15) and Sohail Khan (54 from 60 balls) offered resistance on a wearing yet good batting track on the final day.

Sindh were in trouble soon after Northern declared their second innings at 262 for four and invited Sindh to either win or save the match. Overnight Northern batsman, Zeeshan Malik fell without adding to his score of 96 to Mir Hamza while his partner, Faizan Riaz was also out for 41.

Hammad Azam (39 from 24 balls) and Noman (32 from 15 balls) then added rapid runs to hasten the declaration.

In the Sindh innings, Shehzar Muhammad who scored 74 in the first innings was the first to go trapped leg before by Waqar with a sharp inswinger and Saad Ali followed him when he played on to left armer, Sadaf Hussain.

All-rounder, Hammad Azam struck two telling blows after lunch to leave Sindh tottering on 70 for four.

He first bowled skipper, Sarfaraz Ahmed (16) with one that came in and then forced first innings centurion, Fawad Alam to try to cut a ball too close to his body to be caught behind.

Sindh suffered their fifth blow when Nauman on his first ball trapped Khurram leg-before as he tried to play an expansive sweep shot.

Anwar Ali and Rameez tried to steady the innings with a dour sixth wicket partnership of 34 runs which was broken at the stroke of tea when Nauman again beat the latter with a clever arm ball and trapped him leg before to leave Sindh 126 for six at tea.

The situation only turned worse for the home side after tea when Anwar was stumped by Jamal Anwar off the bowling of Nauman who also had Hassan Khan (11) caught at first slip while Salman Irshad trapped Tabish Khan leg before. Sohail was last man out caught at slip off Faizan Riaz.

In the first innings, Northern collected five batting and three bowling points. Sindh collected three bowling and as many batting points.

Scores in brief:

Northern 408, all out 93.2 overs (Faizan Riaz 211, Ali Sarfaraz 60, Hammad Azam 59; Sohail Khan 3-89, Mir Hamza 3-92) and 262 for 4 declared, 53 overs (Zeeshan Malik 96, Faizan Riaz 41; Mir Hamza 2-72)

Sindh 326, all out 105.5 overs (Fawad Alam 107, Shahzar Mohammad 74, Anwar Ali 69; Nauman Ali 5-58, Sadaf Hussain 2-50) and 199, all out 55.5 overs (Sohail Khan 54, Khurram Manzoor 35, Anwar Ali 32; Nauman Ali 4-51, Hammad Azam 2-18)

Result: Northern win by 145 runs