Gujranwala beat Lahore-Blues by 3 wickets in an Interesting Encounter

Gujranwala beat Lahore-B by a narrow margin of three wickets in the Quaid-e-Azam Grade-I National Championship match played at the LCCA Ground, Lahore.

The Lahore team went into the match looking stronger than its rivals, at least on paper, as it boasted of two one-day international players plus a number of others who have played side games against test playing countries visiting Pakistan.

The Lahore captain, Muhammad Hussain, won the toss and elected to bat first, hoping to exploit the spin-friendly conditions when his team went to bowl in the last innings.

The Lahore batsmen, however, did not come up to the expectations of their captain, as the whole team became the victim of some rash stroke playing. Only Fareed Butt and Imran Yousaf could take their individual scores past 30. They made 39 and 35, respectively.

For Gujranwala, the left arm spinner, Abdul Rehman, took 4 wickets for 54 runs and the left arm fast bowler, Sarfraz Ahmad, took 3 for 66.

Gujranwala's reply was not much different from that of Lahore, as they lost half of their batting line-up with just 120 on the board. However, useful knocks from Imran Abbas (37), Rizwan Malik (43), and Rana Qayyam-ul-Hassan (46) helped their side take a lead of 38 runs in the first innings.

Muhammmad Hussain, the left-arm spinner, and Farhan Rasheed, the off-break bowler, took 5 and 3 wickets, respectively, for 54 and 66 runs. Imran Farhat, with his right-arm leg breaks, took one wicket for 6 runs.

If Lahore's start in the first innings was bad, it was disastrous in the second. Losing their first wicket with nothing on the board, they lost two more wickets by the time the score had reached 18.

However, it was the innings of Fareed Butt, which helped a lot to bring respectability to the Lahore total. He held his innings intact while wickets at the other end kept tumbling. Despite taking several rising deliveries on the body (one of which forced him to take the services of a runner), he did not give until the ninth Lahore wicket had fallen.

Fareed was the last man out as trying to hit one out of the ground, he gave a simple catch at mid-off. He made a patient 73 off 290 balls. Lahore were all out for 212 in their second innings.

Sarfraz Ahmad was the most successful Gujranwala bowler taking 5 wickets for 36 runs, whereas Mubbashir Nazir and Abdul Rehman took 2 and 3 wickets, respectively, for 69 and 75 runs.

Getting 175 in the last innings was not going to be easy for Gujranwala, especially when Hussain, the experienced left-arm spinner, had the ability to amply turn the ball.

However, the Gujranwala openers, Imran Abbas and the debutant Attiq-ur-Rehman gave their team a very formidable start. Attiq, the first to depart, made a fine 36. Gujranwala lost their first wicket at the score of 58 and then, wickets just began to tumble. Some very tight bowling and good fielding soon saw them reduced to 108 for 6.

It seemed at this stage that Lahore would be able to steal the match from the visitors. That was not to be, as Asim Munir and Kamran Younas, both under-19 players, shared a partnership of 53 to steer their side out of danger.

The first ball of the second last over before lunch saw Hussain getting rid of the hard-hitting Karmran. However, the new comer, Hafiz Khalid, ensured that his team got no more jolts as he hit one four and two huge sixes in the same over to see his side through.