The commentary is not available for this match. Please check the scorecard for latest updates.
And that is all that we have for you from tonight's PSL match at the National Stadium in Karachi! It was an absolute pleasure bringing you all the live action! Do continue to follow Sportskeeda's coverage of the Pakistan Super League as more enthralling action comes your way in the upcoming matches! For now, allow the pair of Karthik and Bidipto, to take your leave! Bye!
Paul Stirling: It's been brilliant, good batting tracks here. I think that was the best performance, we spoke about complete team game two nights ago and we did it. It's fun to watch him (Hales) take on the bowlers and watch from the other end.
MATCH SUMMARY
Islamabad United, batting first - 177 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in their 20 overs; Paul Stirling 39 (30) Karachi Kings, batting second - 135 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their 20 overs; Mohammad Nabi 47* (28)
Islamabad United beat Karachi Kings by 42 runs.
Player of the Match: Shadab Khan - 34 (19) (4x4, 1x6) and [4-0-15-4]
It was a comprehensive performance by Islamabad in all three departments over the Karachi Kings.
To begin with, Islamabad won the toss and chose to bat, making first use of a pitch that began to show wear and tear as the innings progressed. The start provided by Paul Stirling, who played his last game in this campaign for Islamabad United, and Alex Hales was a sensible one as they picked up a lot of singles and twos to go with the usual fours and sixes in their 50-run stand. The pitch by then had started to slow down and the ball also started to keep low.
But even after they fell, the batting continued to keep the runs coming. Colin Munro and Shadab Khan, who generally are very attacking batters, showed a lot of maturity to build another solid partnership and keep the momentum going along.
Towards the end, Asif Ali, Faheem Ashraf and Azam Khan contributed with some handy runs to take the Islamabad total to over 175.
The Karachi Kings bowling was good on the whole as they did not allow Islamabad to run away with the scoring, but were a tad too defensive in their bowling. The spinners were more content to keep the runs in check than using their guile to get batters out, resulting in accumulation of runs in ones and twos, and eventually, leading to bad balls being put away to the boundary.
When the Karachi batting began, they were by no means out of it, but made it extremely difficult for themselves to get going when Sharjeel Khan was run out. And with the fall of Babar Azam's wicket, the wheels started to come off for the Kings. The runs were not coming in numbers and a lot of dot balls were getting stacked up.
Sahibzada Farhan tried to put up a fight by taking the attack to the Islamabad bowlers but when he was run out, almost all hopes were lost for Karachi. The other batters found it hard to get any rhythm and there was hardly any momentum that they could use to their advantage.
Mohammad Nabi entertained everyone with some lusty blows but that came all too late as he had no other batter to help him out in trying to chase the runs down.
The bowling from Islamabad was first class! Be it pace or spin, pace on the ball or pace off the ball, every bowling effort got rewarded, either in terms of taking wickets or keeping the runs in check. There was sustained pressure applied on the batting and it wilted under it.
Hasan Ali came back in form with a wicket off his very first delivery and bowled with a lot of hostility. Faheem Ashraf was good early on with his tight bowling, keeping the batters quiet. Waqas Maqsood chipped in with a wicket and Mohammad Wasim Jr got the big wicket of Babar Azam with a brilliant incoming ball that seamed in to castle the Karachi captain.
But the pick of the bowlers was Shadab Khan, taking 4 wickets in 4 overs for only 15 runs and bowling beautifully! He got the ball to turn both ways, go straight, hurry the batter and force the batter to leave the crease in order to play a big shot - all in one spell! His captaincy too was very proactive.
Islamabad United now sit second on the table with 3 wins out of 5, while Karachi Kings are yet to register their first points on the board after 5 matches, they continue to remain at the bottom of the table.
POST-MATCH PRESENTATION
Babar Azam, Karachi Kings captain: It's definitely a tough situation at the moment for us but let's hope to put up better performances in the coming matches. We still believe in our ability. The target was definitely chaseable but we also gave away a few more runs towards the end of our bowling innings.
Shadab Khan, Islamabad United captain and Player of the Match: Last two years of struggle has really helped and whatever I'm able to do for my team now is very rewarding. I get a lot of confidence bowling my googlies when they come off. We wanted to put a lot of pressure on the Karachi bowling because we know what out bowlers are capable of, if they are given a good total to defend. Hasan Ali is a world-class bowler, so we knew that it was a matter of time before he came back to his own. We hope to keep going in this way, now that we are second in the table.
Islamabad United get the better of Karachi Kings by 42 runs!
20
overs
135/9score
0
0
0
0
2
1
runs
Mohammad Nabi*
47(28)
Usman Shinwari
8(6)
Mohammad Wasim
1/41
19.6 Mohammad Wasim Jr to Mohammad Nabi, full-toss, Nabi mis-times the lofted shot over the umpire's head. Just a single as Islamabad United win by 42 runs!
19.5 Mohammad Wasim Jr to Mohammad Nabi, yorker on the stumps, Nabi digs it wide of long-on for a couple of runs. Great work from Mubasir Khan to run across and fire a throw to Wasim who tried a back flip but to no avail
19.4 Mohammad Wasim Jr to Mohammad Nabi, full-toss, Nabi swings it to deep mid-wicket. No run
19.3 Mohammad Wasim Jr to Mohammad Nabi, yorker outside-off, Nabi squeezes it down to long-on. No run
Video
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S Khan
B Azam
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National Stadium, Karachi
Mohammad Nabi
*
Mohammad Wasim
