Lahore, 25 October 2021: The second round of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2021-22 will begin from Wednesday in Faisalabad, Lahore and Multan.
Though the first round saw all three matches end in draw, it served brilliant individual performances with as many as six batters stroking centuries and two bowlers recording five-wicket hauls.
Balochistan’s Imran Butt, Central Punjab’s Abid Ali, Sindh’s Khurram Manzoor and Northern’s Faizan Riaz, Mubasir Khan and Nauman Ali were amongst the century-makers, while Northern’s Musa Khan and Balochistan’s Raza-ul-Hasan took five-wickets each.
The first round proved to be special for Nauman and Musa especially as the two recorded their maiden batting and bowling milestones.
Central Punjab – who shared the last year's title with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – earned maximum points from the opening round as they bagged 12 points (five draw, four batting, three bowling) from their draw against Southern Punjab at the Multan Cricket Stadium.
The Azhar Ali-captained side will travel to Lahore to take on Northern at the Gaddafi Stadium. In the last season, the two teams won a match each against each other. While, Central Punjab will be hoping to make the most of their home advantage, Northern will look to implement the learnings about the conditions from the last match.
The action from this match will be beamed across the globe through nine high-definition cameras on PCB’s official YouTube channel.
Northern took 11 points from their first round match against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which turned out to be the second most.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, meanwhile, will travel to Faisalabad to play Fawad Alam’s Sindh at the Iqbal Stadium. Both teams have nine points.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the joint winners of the last season, have had an incredible start to the season by bagging the National T20 title. After playing out a draw at the Gaddafi Stadium, the Iftikhar Ahmed-captained team will be looking to make the most of their fixture against Sindh, against whom they enjoyed 1-0 score line in two matches in 2020-21.
In the third match of the second round, Imam-ul-Haq-led Balochistan will face Southern Punjab at the Multan Cricket Stadium. Balochistan were beaten twice by Southern Punjab in the last season. Buoyed by a strong performance in Faisalabad, which saw them post 403 in the first innings and end the match with 10 points – the third most – Balochistan will look for settling scores.
Mohammad Abbas' Southern Punjab have nine points.
