Lahore: Quetta Gladiators finally ended the losing streak and scored their first victory in the PSL-6 against Multan Sultans, beating them by 22 runs in the 14th match of the league played at National Stadium Karachi on Wednesday.
With this Gladiators’ victory, the unthinkable things happened as the team (Multan Sultans) asked to bat first managed to win a match but Gladiators’ first victory of the season ended the PSL’s chasing streak. Quetta Gladiators, who remained winless in their first four games of the PSL-6, were unlikely candidates to break the infamous chasing streak, and it was an unlikely contender who fired them to a defendable total.
The Gladiators bowlers Qais Ahmad, Zahid Mahmood and Mohammad Hasnain bowled brilliantly and bundled Multan Sultans out for 154 in 19.4 overs. Dale Steyn took the last wicket of Sultans, when he sent packing pacer Shahnawaz Dhani. Qais Ahmad was main wrecker-in-chief of Sultans batting line up as he grabbed three wickets for 21 runs, while Mohammad Hasnain and Zahid Mahmood chipped in with two wickets each for 34 and 39 respectively.
Captain Mohammad Rizwan emerged as top scorer from Multan Sultans as he cracked classic 66 runs off 50 balls, with the help of 7 fours and 2 sixes, but his heroics couldn’t save the blushes of his side. The other key contributors from Sultans were James Vince (24 off 21), Khushdil Shah (19 off 12) and Imran Tahir (14 off 8) as the remaining Sultan batsmen couldn’t even cross the double figures.
Earlier, Quetta Gladiators started well as their openers Usman Khan and Saim Ayub provided them a solid start but later after the 13th over, their wickets started tumbling and they couldn’t add significant runs in their total, thus posted 176-7 on the board in the allotted overs. Usman Khan was top scorer from the winning side as he played a convincing knock of 81 off 50 balls, smashing 10 fours and 3 sixes while Saim Ayub contributed 23 runs and Muhammad Nawaz 20.
For Multan Sultans, only Shahnawaz Dhani and Imran Tahir bowled well and captured three and two wickets respectively. Quetta Gladiators have the upper hand now on Multan Sultans as they have won four games against Sultans, who have defeated them two times. Qais Ahmad emerged as man of the match for his brilliant bowling performance.
SCOREBOARD
QUETTA GLADIATORS:
Usman Khan lbw b Imran Tahir 81
Saim Ayub c Khushdil b Imran 23
Faf du Plessis b Sohail Khan 17
Azam Khan lbw b Shahnawaz 17
Sarfaraz Ahmed b Imran Khan 3
Ben Cutting lbw b Shahnawaz 10
M Nawaz c Rizwan b Shahnawaz 20
Qais Ahmad not out 2
EXTRAS: (w3) 3
TOTAL: (7 wkts, 20 overs) 176
FOW: 1-69, 2-122, 3-122, 4-131, 5-154, 6-155, 7-176
BOWLING: Sohail Khan 4-0-33-1, Imran Khan 3-0-22-1, Shahnawaz Dhani 4-0-44-3, Carlos Brathwaite 4-0-43-0, Khushdil Shah 1-0-5-0, Imran Tahir 4-0-29-2.
MULTAN SULTANS:
Rizwan c Hasnain b Zahid Mahmood 66
J Vince c Sarfaraz b Qais Ahmad 24
Shan Masood lbw b Qais Ahmad 1
R Rossouw c Usman b Qais Ahmad 3
Sohaib Maqsood c Cutting b Nawaz 2
Khushdil Shah c Saim b Hasnain 19
C Brathwaite c Cutting b Hasnain 4
Sohail Khan c du Plessis b Zahid 8
Imran Tahir run out 14
Imran Khan not out 0
Shahnawaz c du Plessis b Steyn 0
EXTRAS: (b1, lb2, w10) 13
TOTAL: (all out, 19.4 overs) 154
FOW: 1-63, 2-65, 3-86, 4-90, 5-127, 6-131, 7-139, 8-139, 9-154, 10-154.
BOWLING: Mohammad Hasnain 4-0-34-2, Dale Steyn 3.4-0-34-1, Zahid Mahmood 4-0-39-2, Mohammad Nawaz 4-0-23-1, Qais Ahmad 4-0-21-3.
TOSS: Multan Sultans
UMPIRES: Asif Yaqoob, Faisal Afridi
TV UMPIRE: Richard Illingworth
MATCH REFEREE: R Mahanama
About The Author
