The first double-header day of the Pakistan Super League 2022 saw Multan Sultans and Quetta Gladiators emerge victorious in their respective games against Lahore Qalandars and Karachi Kings at the National Stadium in Pakistan.
While Sultans came out on top via a margin of five wickets, the Gladiators finished on the winning side by eight wickets in what were two contrasting fixtures in nature. The Sultans won a high-scoring thriller versus the Qalandars, but the Gladiators clinched victory in a low-scoring one-sided affair against the Kings.
As it happened, in the first match, Sultans won the toss and opted to bowl first. On a flat deck in Karachi, they hoped to restrict the opposition and know exactly how to approach their run-chase. Things didn’t quite pan out that way, however, as they conceded a massive 206/5 in their 20 overs.
Sultans’ bowling attack proved expensive on the night, with only David Willey (1/23) and Imran Tahir (1/32) ending with respectable figures amongst their men. The rest of the cast were taken for plenty and that meant a score in excess of 200 runs.
Qalandars had opening batter Fakhar Zaman (76 off 35 balls) blasting his way through at the top of the order, while middle-order bat Kamran Ghulam contributed a useful 43 off 31 balls. But the Qalandars batting duo’s effort was out-done by their Sultans counterpart in the second half.
Sultans got off to such a great start that it almost became a no-contest by the 15th over of the chase. Opening batters Shan Masood (83) and Mohammad Rizwan (69) added a whopping 150 runs for the first wicket, a giant stand that allowed Sultans to keep their noses ahead despite a mini-collapse in the middle-order. In the end, they reached the target with two balls to spare.
Rashid Khan was Qalandars’ stand-out bowler (1/28) but the rest of the attack – including Shaheen Afridi (3/40) – couldn’t restrict the run-flow.
Brief scores
Lahore Qalandars 206/5 in 20 overs (Zaman 76, Ghulam 43; Willey 1/23) lost to Multan Sultans 209/5 in 20 overs (Masood 83, Rizwan 69; Afridi 3/40) by 5 wickets
In the second match of the day, Karachi Kings collapsed badly with the bat in hand to just 113 runs inside 18 overs, before Quetta Gladiators comfortably chased down the paltry 114-run target.
The Kings batting unit never ever got going in the first half, where their skipper Babar Azam’s painstaking 32 off 29 balls perhaps summed up their misery. Apart from Babar at the top, only Aamer Yamin (20) and Imad Wasim (26) managed to reach the 20-run mark among the rest of the Kings’ batters.
Kings’ batters were ruthlessly outdone by a high-class spell from young speedster Naseem Shah, who took a rare T20 fiver (5 for 20) in another fantastic exhibition of his talent and promise. The old warhorse Sohail Tanvir provided his young pace partner all the support, emerging as the second-best seamer on show with figures of two for 29.
In a straightforward run-chase, Gladiators’ openers Ahsan Ali (57*) and Will Smeed (30) gave their team a solid start, adding 76 runs for the first wicket. Smeed departed after his watchful effort, but Ahsan stayed in the middle. The batter soon crossed his half-century and remained unbeaten till the winning post was reached.
Brief scores
Karachi Kings 113/10 in 17.3 overs (Azam 32, Wasim 26; Shah 5/20) lost to Quetta Gladiators 114/2 in 15.5 overs (Ali 57*, Smeed 30; Imran 1/23) by 8 wickets
