Five-star Faheem wrecks Northern despite Faizan's century.

Byline: Khalid H. Khan

KARACHI -- Discarded Pakistan seamer Faheem Ashraf excelled with a five-wicket haul as the star-laden Central Punjab extended their dominance over Northern in the revamped Quaid-e-Azam Trophy on an eventful opening day of the five-day final here at the National Stadium on Friday.

Having strolled to comfortable victories twice in Faisalabad at the preliminary stage of the competition, Central Punjab once again put up a near-perfect performance chiefly through the inspiring bowling from Faheem. The out-of-favour Pakistan all-rounder rediscovered his form with the ball to claim a sixth five-for in first-class cricket to send Northern nose-diving to 254 all out, with Faizan Riaz striking a wonderful 116.

Central Punjab in reply were trailing by 167 runs after making 87-1 at draw of stumps with Salman Butt looking in ominous touch. The former Pakistan captain pierced the in-field nine times to finish the evening on 48 from 67 balls. Test skipper Azhar Ali, in contrast, somehow struggled for his 17 runs despite having regained form with a second-innings ton on the same turf here against Sri Lanka last Sunday before leading Pakistan to a 1-0 series win.

Ahmed Shehzad was the only man dismissed for the title favourites - who are fielding an international XI - when he was brilliantly held at short cover by a diving Umar Amin off captain Nauman Ali for 22.

But the talk of day one was Northern losing their way. Barring the impressive Faizan and current Pakistan U-19 skipper Rohail Nazir, it was a tale of abject surrender from the their batsmen after Nauman opted to bat first on a straw-coloured pitch. Every time Faheem came on to bowl he looked like taking a wicket. The 25-year-old from Kasur ended up grabbing five for 54 in 14 overs.

The pick of his victims, of course, was Faizan. The right-hander, who began the season in the Second XI event before forcing his way up, looked in impeccable touch at the venue where he just five weeks ago he amassed a superlative 211 against Sindh. But after reaching 116 off 133 balls with the help of 14 boundaries, Faheem undid him with a peach of a delivery that initially darted in before moving away late to induce an outside edge through to wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal.

The demise of Faizan opened the doors for Central Punjab to barge in as the last five wickets went down for the addition of only 30 runs in 63 balls as Test off-spinner Bilal Asif took 3-37.

After looking on course for a sizeable...