KARACHI: Karachi Whites held Multan to a draw, on the final day of their sixth-round, Pool A 2008-09 National Inter-Region Under-19 Three-day Cricket Championship match, at the Gymkhana Ground in Okara on Monday. They had to be thus content with the three points for the first innings advantage.

In the larger context of the tournament, this was an inconsequential match, as defending champions Sialkot have already qualified for the final from Pool A. Karachi Whites have completed their six-match programme in the seven-team group competition, with 12 points from a win, a loss and four draws.

Multan’s five matches so far have fetched them a record of one win, two defeats and two draws with just six points.

Yesterday, after Multan, who had earlier surrendered a 69 runs first innings lead to Karachi Whites, were left with 306 to win in three hours of batting. They had reached 177 for six when the match was called off without a result.

Multan’s first innings of 252 all out was embellished by the in-form Junaid Iqbal’s batting, who posted his second hundred of the tournament. His 134 came off 186 balls with 13 fours and five sixes.

In Karachi Whites’ second innings score of 236 for seven declared, the opening partnership between Fakhar Zaman (71 off 93 balls with eight fours) and Irfan Lodhi, whose 68 runs came off 152 deliveries with five fours, was worth 131 runs.

The rest did little but Karachi skipper Jahangir Shah applied closure with an overall lead of 305 runs.

Rawalpindi have made the final of the three-day contest from the six-team Pool B, where the programme had ended before the Eidul Fitr break late last month. The Whites’ sister string Karachi Blues have qualified for the limited overs tournament from Pool B.

One more round of matches remains to be played in both the Inter-Region Under-19 one-day and three-day competitions, starting from October 18, that’s next Thursday.

Scores: Karachi Whites 321-9 in 83 overs (Jahangir Shah 57, Irfan Lodhi 31, Rameez Aziz 32, Mohammad Zohaib 55, Zakir Afridi 73) and 236-7 dec in 57.2 overs (Fakhar Zaman 71, Irfan Lodhi 68; Mohammad Imran 3-68). Multan 252 in 66.1 overs (Junaid Iqbal 134; Khalid Mahmood 4-49) and 177-6 in 31 overs (Waleed Iqbal 33, Umair Khan 42, Aamer Yamin 46*; Junaid Ilyas 3-61).