Hurraira 193*, Amin 79* give Northern a lead in the first inning

From North 296 for 2 (Hurraira 193*, Amin 79*, Umar 2-56) lead sind 284 (Mehmood 78, Alam 61*, Musa 3-61, Jamal 3-76) for 12 runs

The day had started much more auspiciously for Sindh, who added 54 to his overnight score of 230 for 7, thanks to fireworks from No. 9 Asif Mehmood and an unbeaten 61 from Fawad Alam. He lifted Sindh’s score from 151 for 7 to 284 before Aamer Jamal discarded numbers 10 and 11.

Sindh struck early with the ball twice, a double strike from Mohammad Umar which saw off Hasan Raza and Faseeh Rana inside the first ten overs. But that was for the best for Sindh, with Hurraira attacking all the bowlers, with pace and spin alike. Shahnawaz Dahani took particular punishment at the hands of Hurraira, particularly as the day drew to a close, as did Mohammad Umar, whose last 17 balls Hurraira stole 33 runs. Along the way, he had become the top scorer for this edition of the Quaid-e-Azam trophy, a feat he also accomplished last year.

But the damage had been done during the middle of the day, as the Sindh bowlers were barred from any realistic chance of taking the wicket, with pitches pushed in to prevent runs from being scored. But Hurraira, and to a lesser extent Amin, ensured that would not be possible, and a day that started out so bright for Sindh had darkened considerably when the players were withdrawn for bad light half an hour before closing time.