PSL 7: Sultans beat United by 6 wickets while Quetta Gladiators beat Karachi Kings by 23 runs
Multan Sultans who put on a stellar performance in the seventh edition of the Pakistan Super League 7beat Islamabad by 6 wickets to clinch a record ninth victory in the tournament.
In the match played at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Sunday Multan Sultans have strengthened their position in next round by easily defeating Islamabad United thanks to the excellent performance of bowlers and captain Muhammad Rizwan.
However after losing the match, Islamabad United has reached the next play off stage of PSL. After which Quetta Gladiators and Karachi Kings are the teams that didn't reach the playoff stage.
Injured Islamabad United won the toss & elected to bat first and fielded a new pair of openers to start the innings. United's innings got off to a slow start and in the third over opening batsman Mohammad Harira started the pavilion on Asif Afridi's ball after scoring just two runs.
Liam Dawson took an aggressive approach as soon as he came to the wicket and scored 22 runs off 11 balls and gave the wicket to his compatriot David Willie.
Nasir Nawaz scored 14 runs and fell victim to Imran Tahir of Sultans while Azam Khan was seen struggling throughout the innings and after scoring 8 runs off 18 balls gave twicket to Shahnawaz Dhani. In the next overs the target for the Sultans was reduced but the number of wickets kept increasing.
Asif Afridi dismissed Asif Ali on the last ball of the 13th over. He was also caught out. In the next over when the score reached 69 the team dismissed Danish Aziz.
16 overs were over & the situation was that apart from one maiden over, there were 14 overs in which the maximum score was six. In the closing overs of the innings, Musa Khan played some big shots and remained the most successful batsman of United with 26 runs with the help of two sixes and two fours.
The failure of Islamabad United's batting can be gauged from the fact that only three of their players could reach double figures in the innings.
Now Roman Raees came for bowling, this was his second over. He made the most expensive over of this innings in which a total of 15 runs were scored. But this time he got only four runs in 19 overs. It was at this point that the commentary box was debating whether the record for the lowest score was going to be broken.
The last over was good for United and in this over with one four and one six the total score increased by 14 runs. Thus Islamabad United gave Multan Sultan a target of 105 runs to win.
This is the lowest score of any team so far in PSL 2022. United had earlier scored 82 runs in the 2017 match against Karachi Kings in Sharjah. This was also the lowest score this year.
In pursuit of a modest target, Multan Sultans came out on the field in a confident manner but early in the innings of the Sultans Liam Dawson of Islamabad United created an illusory hope of winning his team's match through a brilliant bowling spell.
He bowled Shaun Masood first and also got the wicket of Aamir Azmat in the same over to give his team its second victory.
He bowled well and forced Khushdal Shah to return to the pavilion in his next over and at that time Sultans had lost three wickets for 18 runs. On this occasion opening stand of the Sultans was shattered and this match was declared as a strange match in the commentary box.
At this stage the captain of the Sultans, Rizwan was accompanied by Tim David and the two together increased the score to 43 but before the aggressive Tim David could be more dangerous Zahid Mahmood dismissed him.
After losing four wickets for 43 runs it seemed that United might be able to defend even a-low score but captain Muhammad Rizwan changed the course of the match by playing a responsible game. He formed a brilliant partnership with new batsman David Willie & added an unbeaten 68 for the fifth wicket to lead his team to the target just 16 balls ahead.
Rizwan hit 6s to give his team the victory and also scored a half century. He played an innings of 51 runs while David Willie scored 28 runs.
Thanks to the victory in this match Sultans got the ninth victory in the event and became the first team to win 9-matches in any edition of Pakistan Super League. Imran Tahir was declared the best player of the match.
0 Comments