Sultans knockout Gladiators by 9 wickets
Ihsanullah shined brightly with his speedy deliveries and bagged back-to-back wickets to dominate in just his second match of the debut PSL season.
Multan Sultans Wednesday defeated Quetta Gladiators by nine wickets in a clinical display of the game in the third match of the ongoing eighth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) at the Multan Cricket Stadium.
Playing on the home ground, Multan Sultans won the toss and decided to bowl first, which proved to be correct.
Multan Sultan’s pacer Ihsanullah wreaked havoc over the strong Quetta Gladiators batting lineup that managed to put a total of just 110 runs on the scoreboard.
Batting second, Rilee Rossouw powered the home side to a dominating nine-wicket victory with an unbeaten 78-run knock.
Rocked back and muscled for a maximum 💪#HBLPSL8 | #SabSitarayHumaray | #MSvQG pic.twitter.com/pyBB3FYNld
— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) February 15, 2023
In the second over of the innings, Martin Guptill returned to the pavilion scoring only seven runs, while Abdul Bengalzai also walked after scoring only one run after giving the wicket to Abbas Afridi.
Captain Sarfraz Ahmed had an easy catch drop at zero but he could not capitalize on it and was bowled by Ihsanullah’s 150 kmph delivery.
Things got more difficult for the Gladiators when Ihsanullah dismissed Jess Roy in his next over, then dismissed Iftikhar Ahmed on the very next ball, leaving QG five wickets short for a total score of 46.
Umar Akmal and Mohammad Nawaz stopped the streak of falling wickets for a while and put on a 20-run partnership for the sixth wicket, but before the duo could add more runs to the partnership, Nawaz, who scored 14 runs, was bowled out LBW.
Umar Akmal also could not bear the parting of his teammate and on the very first ball of the next over, Ehsanullah walked away, who bowled Naseem Shah and took the fifth victim in the innings.
In the closing overs, Naseem Shah and Muhammad Hafeez played some big shots, but despite this, Quetta Gladiators were bowled out for 110 runs before an over, Hasnain scored 22 runs and Hafeez scored 18 runs.
Six players of Quetta Gladiators could not even enter double figures while Jason Roy was the most successful batsman with 27 runs.
While chasing a target of 111, Sultans lost Shan Masood, who scored only 5 runs on 3 balls.
However, after the early hiccup, skipper Mohammad Rizwan and Rilee Rossouw were not providing any space to the Gladiators’ bowlers.
Rizwan scored an unbeaten 34-ball 28, studded with two fours.
Rossouw playing cricket in his natural style, hit a scintillating knock, scoring an unbeaten 42-ball 78, including three sixes and nine fours.
The duo helped the Sultans sweep past the Gladiators in the 14th over, scoring 111-1.
For the Gladiators, Nuwan Thushara (1-21), was the only successful bowler and bagged one wicket.
All other bowlers went wicketless, including Naseem Shah (0-6), Mohammad Hasnain (0-29), Mohammad Hafeez (0-15), Mohammad Nawaz (0-28), and Iftikhar Ahmed (0-10).
Multan Sultan Playing XI: Mohammad Rizwan (c), Shan Masood, Rilee Rossouw, David Miller, Kieron Pollard, Khushdil Shah, Akeal Hossain, Usama Mir, Sameen Gul, Abbas Afridi, Ihsanullah
Quetta Gladiators: Jason Roy, Martin Guptill, Umar Akmal, Sarfaraz Ahmed (c), Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Nawaz, Abdul Wahid, Bangalzai, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Nuwan Thushara
