KARACHI: With 120 points in the bag before the tenth round of the Quaid-e-AzamTrophy, Central Punjab followed a perfect script to settle for a draw in their last round fixture of the premier four-day first class tournament against Southern Punjab on Thursday. On the fourth and final day at the State Bank Stadium, Central Punjab’s openers Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal topped up the overnight one-run lead with a 124-run stand. Kamran perished on a 72-ball 47 while Salman Butt marched on to his 25th first-class ton.Captain Ahmed Shehzad, too, crafted a hundred to achieve a remarkable feat of two centuries in the match.At the close of play, Central Punjab were 309 for one after 81 overs with Salman Butt (158) and Ahmed Shehzad (100) at the crease. Salman and Shehzad piled up 185 runs together to ensure the desired result.With the draw, Central Punjab accumulated enough points to qualify for the final of Quaid-e-AzamTrophy to face the other finalist, Northern who overpowered Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a thrilling encounter at the UBL Stadium. Captain Nauman Ali led from the front taking four wickets for 72 runs in 28 overs while Sadaf Hussain chipped in with two wickets as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa fell away in their 245-run chase on an absorbing day of cricket. Central Punjab and Northern will play the final at the National Stadium from December 27 to 31, 2019.
Scores in brief:
Central Punjab 597-9 declared, 170 overs (Abdullah Shafiq 133, UsmanSalahuddin 114, Mohammad Saad 105 not out, Ahmed Shehzad 100; Salman Ali Agha 3-85, Rahat Ali 2-104, Zia-ul-Haq 2-135, Zulfiqar Babar 2-151) and 309-1, 81 overs (Salman Butt 158 not out, Ahmed Shehzad 100 not out, Kamran Akmal 47) VS Southern Punjab 392 all out, 95.1 overs ( Zeeshan Ashraf 141, Agha Salman 140; Bilal Asif 5-130, Ehsan Adil 3-75, ZafarGohar 2-110)
Result: Match drawn
Scores in brief:
Northern 411 for 8 declared, 106.4 overs (SarmadBhatti 109, HammadAzam 76, FaizanRiaz 63, Zeeshan Malik 61; Sajid Khan 4-121, Usman Khan Shinwari 2-71) and 139 for 6 declared, 25.2 overs (Zeeshan Malik 52, FaizanRiaz 22; Sajid Khan 2-15) VS Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 306 all out, 100.2 overs (RehanAfridi 95 not out, FakharZaman 66, Mehran Ibrahim 54; Waqas Ahmed 6-109, Nauman Ali 2-56) and 39 for 2, 9 overs (SarmadBhatti 1-13, Nauman Ali 1-15) and 205 all out, 76.4 overs (Zohaib Khan 51 not out, Israrullah 50; Nauman Ali 4-72, SadafHussain 2-42)
Result: Northern win by 39 runs