Pakistan Super League Matchday 10 round-up: Quetta Gladiators win their first game this season, while Karachi Kings triumph again

Quetta Gladiators won their first Pakistan Super League 6 game this season as they claimed a 22-run victory over the Multan Sultans.

Debutant Usman Khan was the hero for the Gladiators scoring 81 runs off 50 balls with the bat.

Quetta winning was also the first time that the team batting first had managed to win a game in this year’s PSL, on the 14th attempt.

In Wednesday’s other match, defending champions Karachi Kings recorded another victory as they edged past Peshawar Zalmi by six wickets but with three balls left of their innings.

Quetta Gladiators vs Multan Sultans report – Sultans win toss and field

The Sultans won the toss and elected to field first, but thanks to Khan and Saim Ayub the Gladiators were able to get off to a fast start.

By the time their first wicket fell at the end of the eighth over, Quetta had accumulated 69 runs. Ayub was the man to go when his attempt to loft the ball into cow corner could only find the fielder placed there. Although personally frustrating for Ayub, he’d only contributed 23 runs to the 69 total. If Quetta were going to win, they’d need batters who could hit quick runs.

Luckily for the Gladiators, at the opposite end of the crease to Ayub was young PSL debutant Khan who batted excellently to hit a 50-ball 80 before being given LBW to an Imran Tahir delivery. With so many runs accumulated off a relatively low number of balls, he’d done his job and now it was down to the rest of the batting line-up to make sure they did theirs.

However, each of the remaining Quetta batsmen who featured failed to have a similar impact, but it was a case of the combined impact proving to be better than that of the individual. Both Faf du Plessis and Azam Khan hit 17 runs each. Sarfaraz Ahmed, the captain, could only chip in with three. Ben Cutting and Mohammad Nawaz added 30 between them with Cutting scoring 10 and Nawaz 20. Qais Ahmed was batting at eight and the last man in for Quetta and by the time their 20 overs were up they’d obtained a score of 176-7.

Sultans’ run-chase turns sour with batting collapse

The Sultans got their chase off to a good start and both Mohammad Rizwan and James Vince batted well, powering their way to 53-0 inside the powerplay to match the required run rate. They took advantage of a shaky start from the Gladiator’s pace bowlers, and Quetta captain Sarfaraz Ahmed used up both of his reviews early on to rub salt into potential Gladiators wounds.

But, both Qais Ahmad and Mohammad Nawaz came on after the powerplay was over and were able to nullify the threat of the Sultans. Ahmad removed Vince for 24 runs in his first over with a lovely leg-spinner that pitched in front of middle stump before spinning away. Vince attempted to play the spin but could only get a whisper of an edge on it as it carried through to the keeper.

Aside from Vince and Rizwan, only two other Sultans batsmen managed a score of double figures. Yet Khushdil Shah and Tahir only managed 19 and 14 respectively. Shah fell victim to a Mohammad Hasnain ball that was smartly caught by Ayub, while Tahir was run out attempting a risky second.

With such a disappointing collapse, which saw the Sultans lose five wickets for just 27 runs, it was lucky at least that Rizwan was in for most of the innings. Yet he was dismissed at the back end of over 18, when his attempted sweep over mid-wicket didn’t quite come off and he was caught by Hasnain. He had hit a 50 ball 66 but it looked to be a case of too little too late.

Quetta’s first victory of the tournament was confirmed three balls early, when Shahnawaz Dhani’s wicket fell the ball after Tahir’s. Dale Steyn’s ball was hit high in the sky by Dhani but Du Plessis was on hand to complete a wonderful diving catch to give Quetta a richly deserved win, largely thanks to Khan who blew everyone away with his performance. It was also the first time this tournament that a side who have batted first went on to win the game.

Peshawar Zalmi vs Karachi Kings report – Karachi win toss and fielded

In Wednesday’s earlier game, Karachi Kings narrowly overcame Peshawar Zalmi, claiming a six-wicket victory with just three balls remaining.

Ravi Bopara hit an excellent 58 runs off 40 balls for Zalmi, but it proved to be in vain as the Kings successfully chased down a target of 189.

Kings won the toss and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, elected to field first. Opening batsmen Kamran Akmal and Tom Kohler-Cadmore were dismissed within the opening five overs. Kohler was the last of the pair to depart, doing so after 29 balls when Zalmi were on a score of 30-2. Akmal managed 21 whilst Kohler could only contribute 10.

Peshawar captain Shoaib Malik was dismissed on just his second ball, when he was given LBW from Mohammad Ilyas. When Malik went for just one run, Zalmi were in danger of being cut adrift later as they sat at 34-3.

Haider Ali only managed nine from his 12 balls, and it was Bopara who restored credibility to the Zalmi innings as a superb 58 from 40 dragged them back from the brink of collapse. He was in for 15 overs and for six of those combined excellently with Sherfane Rutherford as the pair salvaged the Zalmi innings. Rutherford was caught behind by the Karachi keeper Joe Clarke with just an over-and-a-half to play, so Amad Butt did superbly to hit five boundaries (three fours, two sixes) off the seven deliveries he faced as he raced to a score of 27.

Zalmi eventually finished on a score of 188-5, a job well done considering that at one stage they were 34-3.

Karachi Kings chase down total to win again

Karachi Kings got their innings off to the worst possible start, when Sharjeel Khan was caught by Mohammad Irfan on the very first ball. Mohammad Imran’s ball deceived Khan, whose pull shot was mistimed and as such he was taken at short fine leg by Irfan.

However, while Babar Azam is at the crease, you’ll always have a shot at victory. On Wednesday, Azam was in sparkling form, and hit an unbeaten 77 off just 47 deliveries. Clarke, who’s had a successful tournament so far was unable to build upon previous performances with the bat and he was caught behind by Akmal at the tail end of the fourth over having scored just 17 himself.

Colin Ingram was Azam’s next partner at the crease, but he had a rather tough time of it. Off 11 balls, Ingram could manage no more than three runs. He was dismissed when caught at mid-wicket by Haider Ali off Saqib Mahmood’s bowling. Currently, Mahmood has the most wickets in the competition, this being his 11th of the year.

His 12th came 10 overs after Ingram was caught as he finally broke through the partnership between Mohammad Nabi and Azam. The 23-year-old’s length ball was pitched perfectly at the stumps and Nabi hit it straight to Kohler-Cadmore who took a simple catch fielding at long-on. Nabi had hit 67 off 35 balls and his stand with Babar looked to be enough for the Kings to win, but with 21 balls to score 28 runs it was going to go right to the wire.

Daniel Christian came in as the Kings sought the runs that would give them their third win of the tournament, and it was he who hit the winning runs with three balls left. A shot towards deep square leg that’d usually be no more than a single turned into a four when the fielder, in a hurry to send the ball back in towards the stumps, let it slide through his legs to the boundary.

The win sees Karachi go top of the PSL, above Peshawar Zalmi, on net run-rate alone. However, they won’t top it for long as Islamabad United and Lahore Qalandars face off on Thursday. Both sides have won three and lost just one of their opening four. The winner of Thursday’s game (2pm UK time) will be top going into the reverse fixtures that start on Friday.