Quaid-e-Azam Trophy: Shakeel stars in Karachi Whites’ victory

PQA, Hyderabad relegated to Grade II

KARACHI: Talented all-rounder Saud Shakeel scored an all-important century in the seventh round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy to guide Karachi Whites to a three-wicket win over Fata on Thursday.

Karachi Whites had resumed the day on 34-0, chasing 319, and reached the target in 89.3 overs, courtesy Saud’s brilliant 116-run knock. Irfanullah Shah claimed three scalps and Asif Afridi took two wickets for Fata.

The result saw Karachi Whites progress to the Super Eight phase.



Fata, meanwhile, narrowly avoided relegation as the rules dictated that one departmental and one regional team with the lowest points across both groups would be relegated.

Therefore Fata, who had the same points as Hyderabad — six, but had registered one win to Hyderabad’s none, were allowed to stay in the first-class tournament, while Hyderabad were relegated along with star-studded departmental team Port Qasim Authority (PQA).

Meanwhile, Wapda were in trouble in their last group match against HBL as both PQA and SSGC could have leapfrogged them in terms of points, however, they overpowered their opponents, HBL, in the final group match and inflicted a 225-run defeat to progress to the Super Eight.



At the Diamond Ground in Islamabad, PQA required a win to progress to the Super Eights, however, no play was possible on the final day of the match due to rain and bad light and the match ended in a draw, which saw SSGC through.

SNGPL, UBL, Lahore Blues and SSGC progressed from Pool A, while NBP, KRL, Karachi Whites and Wapda went ahead from Pool B.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2015.

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