Quetta Gladiators defeated Karachi Kings by 5 wickets in the sixth match of HBL PSL V 2020 at National Stadium Karachi (NSK), here on Sunday.
Chasing the target of 157 runs at jam-packed NSK, Anwar Ali finished the innings with a big six at midwicket fence when Quetta needed 6 runs of seven balls.
Electing to bat first at the toss has apparently appeared costly for Imad Wasim and his team - Karachi Kings as Mohammad Hasnain and Tymal Mills with regular changes of pace restricted all its batmen entering into thirties.
Quetta Gladiators 21-year-old Azam Khan again showed his batting talent with sensible innings of 46 runs of 30 balls that assisted captain Sarfaraz to drag his team towards the victory stand. He made a partnership of 85 runs with Sarfaraz, who remained not out at 37 runs. Azam was declared Man of the Match.
Earlier, the Karachi Kings, who made 201 runs during its last match against Peshawar Zalmi, cobbled together 156 runs after utilizing all 20 overs. Sharjeel Khan and Babar Azam, who opened the innings for Karachi Kings, failed to provide a solid platform.
Babar succeeded to maintain runs rates over 9 with strike rates of 113 especially in initial three overs. On the other hand, Sharjeel looked less confident to set on crease. He was caught and bowled by Nawaz at a total of 47 in 7.3 overs.
In 3.3 overs, Quetta, which appealed for Babar who seemed to have a nick, went for review after rejection. Later, the decision was pending for several 5 minutes as no data seemed available due to malfunctioning of hawk-eye. Therefore, Sarfaraz as per rule took back his appeal for review after long chat with the umpires. Babar played 26 of 23 balls with five classy boundaries before being bowled out by Mills in 4.4 overs.
Later, Alex Hales and Camron Delport managed to escalate the scoreboard to 75 runs when Delport was caught by Nawaz on Sohail's slow delivery at deep square leg in 10.4overs. Both Nawaz and Naseem attempted to take Delport catch and nearly escaped a collision; Nawaz held onto the ball. Delport scored 22 of 12 balls with two boundaries and a six. Chadwick Walton added a run in a scoreboard before being run out by Hassnain while trying to take a run on last ball of 12th overs. Hales played 29runs inning of 17 balls and he got an outside edge on Hasnain and was caught by Nasir (Sub) at third man boundary at a total of 96 for 5. Imad was run out by Sarfaraz at 8 while Iftikhar, Jordan and Umaid made 25, 14 and 9 runs, respectively before going to the pavilion.
Jason Roy and Shane Watson opened the innings for Quetta Gladiators. They gave a solid start of 41 runs in 6overs and laid the victory stone for Quetta. Although it could have been a simple chase for Gladiators, trio (Watson, Jason and Azam) run-outs raised the excitement of charged crowd, who were mostly in favor of Kings.
Watson was run out on Umaid's throw from deep backward square leg when he was taking second run in 5.5 overs. He scored 27 of 20 balls with two boundaries and a couple of massive sixes. Roy was the second, who was run out by Imad in 7.5overs and then Azam, who fumbled while running between the wickets with Sarfaraz. He made 17 of 20 balls. Ahmed Shehzad, who did not impress the spectators so far, threw his wicket on wide long on at the score of 11 in 8.1overs. Nawaz added a run before being caught by Hales at deep midwicket.
Gladiators after its second victory in three matches grabbed top position on the table with four points however, Kings stood at fifth based on their net run rate.
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