The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2023/24 final is being played between Karachi Region Whites and Faisalabad Region at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Faisalabad won the toss and put Karachi Whites into bat on day one today, October 22, and the Karachi top order made hay.

Opener Khurram Manzoor was dismissed cheaply for three in the fifth over of the day, but since then, no wickets have fallen as the second-wicket partnership of Saim Ayub and Shan Masood have piled on the misery on the Faisalabad bowlers.

At the end of 63 overs, Masood was batting on 164 off just 159 balls, having hit 12 fours and seven sixes. Ayub, on the other hand, reached his second first-class century, and was batting on 173 off 202 balls with 19 fours and two sixes at the time of writing. Karachi’s score read a mammoth 352-1, that too at a run rate of 5.58.

Ayub has been in scintillating form across formats in the last few months. Having shone in the PSL earlier this year, he was handed an international debut in the T20I series against Afghanistan just after the PSL.

Since then, he has made his mark in the Caribbean Premier League, where he ended up as the second-highest run-scorer with 478 runs from 13 innings at an average of 43.45 and a strike rate of 143. And now, he is lighting up the first-class circuit in Pakistan with his run-scoring.

All of 21 years of age, Ayub has a long and bright future ahead of him.

Watch Saim Ayub stroke his way to a second first-class ton in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final in Lahore:

.@SaimAyub7 fluently marches his way to a second first-class ton 🙌#QeAT | #FSDvKHIW pic.twitter.com/Lctm7s9fQ4

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) October 22, 2023