Karachi, 27 August 2022: Sindh Blues moved one step closer to victory in the National U19 Championship final against Sindh Whites after a dominant display on the third day at the UBL Sports Complex in Karachi.
Sindh Whites finished the day’s play struggling at 164-5 in pursuit of the improbable 506-run target with Shahwaiz Yasir and Syed Tayyab Hussain unbeaten on 50 and 22 respectively. The duo came to the crease when their team had lost half of their side on 107 runs as they stitched an unbroken 57-run stand to take them to stumps.
Sindh Whites still seem to be staring at an imminent defeat following the failure of their top-order to build significant partnerships. Opening batter Ali Ishaq was dismissed for 20 in the fifth over of the innings by Aftab Ibrahim before Afnan Khan got the better of his batting partner Hamza Qureshi for 11.
Noman Ali perished soon for the paltry score of five while Yahya Shah spent 54 balls in the middle for his 35 as he was out stumped off the bowling of Ziaullah. Afnan then returned to pick up his second wicket of the innings by getting rid of Sindh Whites skipper Hassan Iqbal (15).
Earlier in the day, Wahaj Riaz starred with a stellar century to go with his 72 in the first innings to help Sindh Blues set a mammoth target.
Wahaj made 116 with 10 fours and a solitary six and forged a 107-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Arbaz Khan, who scored 57 with seven boundaries and one six.
After Arbaz fell off Haseeb-ur-Rehman, Wahaj batted well with the tail to take Sindh Blues’ score from 170-4 to 275-8. He then became the ninth batter to be out whereas the final pair added only three runs to the total and Sindh Blues were all out for 278, stretching their lead to 505 runs.
Sindh Whites spinner Haseeb was once again among the wickets as he returned figures of 4-107, fortifying his position as the leading wicket-taker in the tournament. Left-arm spinner Tayyab chipped in with three wickets for 69 runs.
The buoyant Sindh Blues will resume their victory push on Sunday in hopes of sealing the contest quickly while Sindh Whites require a massive 342 runs for a miraculous win on the final day.
Scores in brief:
Sindh Blues 363-9d, 81.2 overs (Habibullah 130, Wahaj Riaz 72, Saad Baig 36, Aftab Ibrahim 29, Haroon Arshad 24, Afnan Khan 22, Ali Hasan 21; Syed Tayyab Hussain 5-85, Daniyal Ahmed 2-40, Haseeb-ur-Rehman 2-147) and 278 all out, 70 overs (Wahaj Riaz 116, Arbaz Khan 57, Saad Baig 29, Habibullah 24; Haseeb-ur-Rehman 4-107, Syed Tayyab Hussain 3-69, Fahad Amin 2-48)
Sindh Whites 136 all out, 60.1 overs (Ali Ishaq 26, Daniyal Ahmed 26, Noman Ali 23; Afnan Khan 3-21, Naveed Ahmed Khan 3-22, Aftab Ibrahim 2-45) and 164-5, 52 overs (Shahwaiz Yasir 50 not out, Syed Yahya Shah 35, Syed Tayyab Hussain 22 not out; Afnan Khan 2-23)
