Northern 296 for 2 (Hurraira 193*, Amin 79*, Umar 2-56) lead Sindh 284 (Mehmood 78, Alam 61*, Musa 3-61, Jamal 3-76) by 12 runs
The day had begun much more auspiciously for Sindh, who added 54 to their overnight score of 230 for 7, thanks to fireworks from No.9 Asif Mehmood and an unbeaten 61 from Fawad Alam. It pushed Sindh’s score up from 151 for 7 to 284 before Aamer Jamal dismissed Nos. 10 and 11.
Sindh struck early with the ball twice, a double-strike from Mohammad Umar removing Hasan Raza and Faseeh Rana inside the first ten overs. But that was as good as it would get for Sindh, with Hurraira taking the attack to every bowler, pace and spin alike. Shahnawaz Dahani came in for particular punishment at Hurraira’s hands, particularly as the day drew to a close, as did Mohammad Umar, whose last 17 balls Hurraira plundered 33 runs off. Along the way, he had taken over as the highest run-scorer of this edition of the Quaid-e-Azam trophy edition, a feat he managed last year, too.
But the damage had been done through the middle part of the day as Sindh’s bowlers were shut out of any realistic wicket-taking opportunities, with the fields pushed out to prevent run-scoring. But Hurraira, and to a lesser extent, Amin ensured that wouldn’t be possible, and a day that began so brightly for Sindh had darkened considerably as the players were brought off for bad light half an hour before the close.