A left-arm fast-medium bowler, Muhammad Samiullah Khan Niazi, was the surprise package of the 2005–06 Pakistan season. Before Peshawar and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) highly experienced and much more effective Fazl-e-Akbar, the discarded Pakistan paceman went past his tally of wickets in the last possible match of the season. However, Samiullah Niazi was leading the Pathan by a solitary wicket as the leading bowler of the national domestic program.
Samiullah Khan Niazi, in fact, had already completed his program for his Faisalabad team in the Pentangular Cup competition. He had ended the season with a total of 75 wickets. Fazl-e-Akbar had captured 74 and still had a match in hand; he took six more and raised his eventual season’s tally to 80 wickets in first-class matches.
Of course, that in no way detracts from Samiullah’s excellent effort with the ball for Faisalabad, who ended as runners-up to new champions Sialkot in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Championship Gold League, and his employers, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL).
Samiullah Niazi took his 75 wickets in 14 first-class matches at only 18.36 runs apiece; Fazl-e-Akbar’s 80 came in 16 appearances, at a rate of 19.57 each. To be fair to Samiullah, he really didn’t get many regular chances before the dawn of the By the next season, after Sargodha had been included — for cricketing purposes — in the larger Faisalabad region, Samiullah Khan Niazi became a regular part of the latter’s outfit. He continued to pick up rather cheap wickets, his 27 in nine first-class matches in 2004–05 costing him just 17.66 runs apiece.
Samiullah Khan Niazi also became an important member of the Faisalabad Wolves team, which appeared in the season’s limited-overs tournaments as well as the inaugural National Twenty20 Championship. The Wolves clinched the latter title in style and then, when the Faisalabad team was invited to play in the International Twenty20 Club Championship by the Leicestershire county in England, Samiullah Khan Niazi was one of its proud members as the Wolves went on to win that title also!
Samiullah Khan Niazi is now, of course, looking towards making various Pakistan A-sides and then taking the next step to move into the senior team’s dressing room. He is sure to be in the Pakistan A line-up that’s proceeding to Australia late next month to play in a quadrangular festival of matches that also involves teams for Australia, India, and New Zealand.
An indication in this regard was given when he was chosen to play for Pakistan A in the six-nation EurAsia Cricket Series in Abu Dhabi in April-May this year. In 32 first-class matches in his four seasons so far, Samiullah has gathered 138 wickets at a stingy rate of just 19.45 runs each.
His record at the Twenty20 level is very encouraging, with 21 wickets at only 18.19 apiece. He may not yet be among the more fashionable players available on the domestic circuit, but he is emerging as the most effective Samiullah Khan Niazi display with the ball in all the seasons so far.
