In a thrilling match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, the Karachi Kings chased down a modest total of 118 against the Quetta Gladiators, keeping their hopes of making it to the Pakistan Super League (PSL) playoffs alive. The Kings were guided to victory by the experienced Kiwi batter Tim Seifert, who scored 49 off 31, hitting six 4s and two 6s. The match began with Quetta Gladiators starting well, with opening batter Jason Roy hitting three 4s off the first two balls of the game, bowled by Shoaib Malik. However, Blessing Muzarabani outsmarted Roy, getting him to the top edge, which was caught by Hasan Ali as third man.
Kings’ captain Shan Masood’s poor form with the bat continued, as he was dismissed in the second over of the innings for just 7 runs. However, it was bowler Hasan Ali who set up the platform for the Kings’ batters. Hasan picked up four wickets for 15 runs in his spell of four overs, foxing the Gladiators‘ batters into gifting their wickets away to the Kings’ bowlers. Apart from Hasan’s 4, Mir Hamza picked up 1 and Zimbabwe’s Blessing Muzarabani and Zahid Mahmood picked up 2 each. Muzarabani, Irfan Khan, and substitute Anwar Ali also contributed to one runout, that of the former Gladiators skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed.
Earlier in the day, Gladiators started well with attacking English opening batter Jason Roy hitting three 4s, two off consecutive deliveries of Malik and one-off Hamza before Muzarabani outsmarted him and got him to the top edge one to Hasan at third man. Following Roy’s dismissal, Saud Shakeel was joined by Khawaja Nafay who has enjoyed some success in the tournament so far. Both of them kept the flow of the runs quick and had started to flex their muscles before Hasan dealt a double blow to Gladiators’ hopes in his second over of the game.
He got rid of Saud and Nafay in the same over and Gladiators could never recover from the mini-collapse. Ultimately, Gladiators lost nine wickets for 51 runs, of which the last five came for just 29 runs. Hasan was awarded the Player of the Match award for his 4/15. The victory keeps Karachi Kings’ hopes of making it to the PSL playoffs alive, while Quetta Gladiators remain among the top two teams with nine points from seven matches.
