LAHORE: Man-of-the-match Faheem Ashraf bowled brilliantly to power Islamabad United to a 6-wicket triumph over Sarfaraz Ahmed-led Quetta Gladiators in the delayed 12th match of the PSL-6 played at Karachi’s National Stadium on Tuesday night.
The openers of Islamabad provided them solid start and added 76-runs for the first-wicket partnership. Such a solid start put enormous pressure on Quetta Gladiators’ and helped United batsman to reach home safely well before 18 balls. Paul Stirling emerged as top scorer from Islamabad as he faced 33 balls to score 56 runs with the help of 8 fours and two sixes while the opener Alex Hales slammed 23 runs off 13 balls, hitting five boundaries.
Wicketkeeper batsman Rohail Nazir (34 off 28 balls) and captain Shadab Khan (21 off 17 balls) also batted sensibly for the winning side and when both departed, last match hero Asif Ali, dubbed as hard-hitting batsman, played his part successfully and landed his side home safely. Asif played 10 balls to gather unbeaten 16, smashing 2 fours and one six. For Quetta Gladiators, Zahid Mahmood was the key bowler, who claimed two important wickets while Dale Steyn and Mohammad Hasnain shared one wicket each between them.
Earlier batting first, Quetta Gladiators posted 156 on the board for the loss of 6 wickets. Gladiators’ opening order collapsed in the power play, however, skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed (54) and Mohammad Nawaz (31) led the way from then onwards. Islamabad’s bowlers played well, with Faheem Ashraf picking up three wickets and conceding only 11 runs, while Hasan Ali took two and Shadab Khan took one wicket.
SQUADS:
ISLAMABAD UNITED: Alex Hales, Asif Ali, Fawad Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Hussain Talat, Musa Khan, Shadab Khan, Zafar Gohar, Hassan Ali, Paul Stirling, Lewis Gregory, Phil Salt, Rohail Nazir, Ali Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Ahmed Saifi Abdullah, Zeeshan Zameer.
QUETTA GLADIATORS: Anwar Ali, Azam Khan, Ben Cutting, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Zahid Mahmood, Dale Steyn, Tom Banton, Usman Khan Shinwari, Cameron Delport, Qais Ahmad, Abdul Nasir, Saim Ayub, Arish Ali Khan, Usman Khan, Faf du Plessis, Dale Steyn.
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