KARACHI: An unbeaten 101 by Ubaid Shahid steered Central Punjab to an eight-wicket win over Southern Punjab at the Ayub Park Ground in Rawalpindi in the opening-round match of the PCB U16 National One-Day Tournament on Saturday.
In the other two matches, a five-wicket haul from Amir Hassan and half-centuries from Saad Masood and Sheraz Khan guided Northern to a six-wicket win over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the Rawal Cricket Ground, while Sindh beat Balochistan by five wickets at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.
A 129-run stand for the second-wicket between Azan Awais and Ubaid Shahid helped Central Punjab chase down a 239-run target in the 43rd over. Right-handed Ubaid scored an unbeaten 101 off 118 balls. His knock included 14 fours. Opening batsman Azan hit 10 fours in his 69 off 78 balls.
Southern Punjab, after being asked to bat, were bowled out for 238 in 44.1 overs. Opening batsman Arafat Ahmed top-scored with a 61-ball 71, hitting 13 fours. Moheer Saeed and Adeel Mushtaq contributed 45 and 35 runs, respectively. For Central Punjab, Awais Ali and Momin Qamar took two wickets each.
At Rawal Cricket Ground, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were bowled out for 202 in 43.4 overs thanks to Amir Hasan’s five for 40. The right-arm pacer returned the figures in the nine overs he bowled, and received support from Ihsan Ullah and Irshad Ahmed as both took two wickets each.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shahzaib Khan top-scored with a 112-ball 64, which was laced with six fours. Wicketkeeper-batsman Uzair Shah chipped in with a quick-fire 55 off 43 balls, hitting six fours and a six.
In return, Northern chased down the target in 43.2 overs for the loss of four wickets. Saad Masood and Sheraz Khan contributed 58 runs each. Sheraz’s unbeaten knock included six fours and a six. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mohammad Irfan took two wickets for 48.
Meanwhile, an all-round performance from Balochistan’s Sajjad Khan went in vain as Sindh beat Balochistan by five wickets at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.
Balochistan were bowled out for 167 in 45 overs after Sindh elected to field.
Left-handed Sajjad, coming in to bat at number eight, top-scored with a 68-ball 67, hitting five fours and four sixes. Anwar Shah and captain Ikram Ullah were other significant run-getters as they made 31 and 26 runs, respectively.
For Sindh, off-spinner Romail Khan bowled economically and ended-up with match figures of 9-4-17-3. Dawood Abbas and Zaid Ahmed picked two wickets apiece.
Sindh chased down the target in 31.3 overs for the loss of five wickets. Wahaj Riaz top-scored with 48 off 55 balls, in a knock studded with 10 fours, while Abdul Rehman contributed an unbeaten 40 off 60 balls, and struck five boundaries.
For Balochistan, Sajjad took three wickets, while Mohammad Qasim picked two wickets.