National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) enhanced their chances considerably to win the final honours, as they defeated Faisalabad comprehensively by 10 wickets, inside two days in their Pentangular Cup match at Multan.
NBP are now at the top of the points table as Faisalabad slipped a place below them. The latter now have 18 points from three appearances while NBP have the same number from two matches, with two still remaining.
Yesterday, having resumed their overnight score of 192 for 7, NBP took their eventual score to 241 and gained a first innings lead of 144. Faisalabad crashed in their second outing too, as they were routed for 165 in 46 overs. The two NBP openers rattled up the 22 required for the win, in only 3.3 overs.
Mohammad Sami excelled both as a bowler and batsman in the match, with figures of 5 for 31 and 3 for 28 and hammered a quick 33 not out off 43 balls with two fours and two sixes.
Faisalabad's Samiullah Niazi, the left-arm seamer, provided a late burst of wickets and ended the NBP innings with a haul of 4 for 67 in 24.3 overs.
Faisalabad started their second innings disastrously, losing the in-form Mohammad Hafeez and Asif Hussain without scoring. Later, Misbah-ul-Haq too perished for a duck. The middle-order resisted for a while but the end was not too far away. Ijaz Ahmed Jnr top-scored with 45. NBP medium-pacer Imran Javed was the most effective bowler for NBP, taking four wickets for 34 runs in 11 overs.
NBP's fourth-round match, their third in the competition, is against Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) at the same venue in Multan, starting from Monday, April 17. Faisalabad only have one more match to play -- against Karachi Harbour, starting at Lahore next Monday.
Karachi Harbour virtually ended Sialkot's chances of picking themselves up from the bottom of the table as took their overall lead to 258 they and still had six second innings wickets in hand, on the second day of their Pentangular Cup match at Lahore.
Sialkot were dismissed for 227, with a 99-run deficit. By the close of play, Karachi made 159 for 4 in their second outing with Asim Kamal at the crease, unbeaten on 42. He shared a fourth-wicket stand of 86 with Afsar Nawaz. Afsar scored 65 off 115 balls with nine fours and lost his wicket in the last over of the day.
Earlier, Sialkot resumed at their overnight score of 43 for 2, with the fourth-wicket pair of Ayub Dogar (77) Shahzad Malik (35) putting on 96. Although Haafiz Khalid Mahmood later hit a characteristic 47, off a mere 39 balls with six fours and a six, the last four wickets added only a further 68 runs. Mohammad Hasnain and off-spinner Atif Maqbool picked up three wickets each for Karachi.