Karachi Blues beat Multan by seven wickets on the third day of the second round of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2025-26 on Tuesday.
Chasing a 100-run target for victory, Karachi crossed the finish line in 16.3 overs with player of the match Saad Baig backing up his first innings century with an unbeaten 65.
Earlier, Karachi Blues’ Saqib Khan bagged six wickets to bundle out Multan for 272 in their second innings. Sharoon Siraj was the top scorer with 96 off 148 balls, followed by Waqar Hussain, who made 52 off 86 balls.
Multan – who incurred a 173-run first innings deficit – began the day from the overnight score of 12-0 and then slid from 212-4 to 272 all out.
Bahawalpur’s Saad Khan struck a magnificent unbeaten double century – his maiden in first-class cricket – to lead his team from 124-3 overnight to 463-6 in 126 overs in reply to Islamabad’s 541-6 dec at the Shoaib Akhtar Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi.
Saad stitched a 136-run stand with Mohammad Alamgir (58), a 142-run fifth-wicket stand with Mubasir Khan (72) and an unbeaten 106-run stand for the seventh wicket with Muhammad Imran (51 not out) to help his team bat out the day and erase the mammoth deficit.
Sialkot:
Sialkot’s Mehran Mumtaz stunned Faisalabad as he registered his maiden first-class century (125) batting at no.9 as they went from an overnight score of 189-5 to 416 all out – getting a 161-run first innings lead.
Mehran shared a 124-run stand for the ninth wicket with Mohammad Ali, who faced 105 balls to score 18 runs, including three fours. He fell to Faisalabad’s concussion substitute Jahandad Khan, who had come in place of fast bowler Asad Raza.
In turn, Faisalabad were 38-2 at stumps with Faham-ul-Haq’s injury replacement Sameer Saqib unbeaten on 20.
Abbottabad found themselves trailing by 100 runs in the second innings with eight wickets in hand against Lahore Whites as they finished the day three with 35-2.
Earlier, Lahore Whites added 268 runs to their overnight score of 232-2 to rack up a 135-run first innings lead. Ali Zaryab fell one run short of his double century, while Khalid Usman picked up five wickets.
FATA required 205 more runs to win against Peshawar as they finished the day three with 51-2 in 17.2 overs.
Earlier, Peshawar resumed from their overnight score of 59-1 and managed a 295 all out with the help of half-centuries from Iftikhar Ahmed (75), Mohammad Haris (59) and Israrullah (51), setting FATA a 256-run target. Zahid Mehmood returned figures of 24-1-85-6 – his 10th first-class five-for.
