LAHORE: Sialkot will enter the second half of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy on Wednesday as the front-runners, leading Peshawar by eight points. Sialkot will take on sixth-placed Bahawalpur at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium, while Peshawar will face fifth-placed Karachi at the Marghzar Cricket Ground.

In the other three matches, third-placed Faisalabad will square off against fourth-placed Lahore at the Diamond Cricket Stadium; seventh-placed Multan will play bottom-placed Islamabad at the Imran Khan Cricket Stadium; and eighth-placed FATA will meet ninth-placed Abbottabad at the Shoaib Akhtar Cricket Stadium.

With Pakistan playing South Africa in the ODI series, four other emerging cricketers will miss the sixth-round action as they have been selected for the Hong Kong Sixes tournament, scheduled from 7 to 9 November. They are Abbas Afridi (captain) and Maaz Sadaqat (both Peshawar), Mohammad Shahzad (Multan), and Saad Masood and Shahid Aziz (FATA).

Abdul Samad, Khawaja Mohammad Nafay, and Saad Masood are the other members of the squad but are not featuring in the premier first-class tournament.

After five rounds, Bahawalpur’s Saad Khan is the leading run-getter with 626 runs, including two centuries and three half-centuries. He is followed by Islamabad’s Shamyl Hussain (567 runs, 2×100, 3×50), Saad Baig of Karachi (522 runs, 2×100, 2×50), Sarmad Bhatti of Islamabad (506 runs, 3×100, 1×50), and Abbottabad’s Yasir Khan (451 runs, 1×100, 3×50).

Overall, 45 centuries have been scored in 25 matches.

Among the bowlers, Test fast bowlers Mohammad Abbas of Lahore and Mohammad Ali of Sialkot lead the field with 23 wickets apiece. They are followed by fast bowlers Saqib Khan of Karachi (21 wickets), Sialkot’s Athar Mahmood (20 wickets), and Bahawalpur’s Mohammad Azab (18 wickets).

Iftikhar Ahmed of Peshawar, FATA’s Zahid Mahmood, and Abbottabad’s Israr Hussain are the joint sixth-most successful bowlers with 17 wickets each. Overall, 28 five-wicket hauls have been recorded, with Abbas achieving the feat thrice, and Ali, Azab, Zahid, Shahid Aziz (FATA), Aamer Yamin (Multan), Mohammad Imran Randhawa (Bahawalpur), and Khalid Usman (Abbottabad) taking five wickets in an innings twice.