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MATCH SUMMARY
Quetta Gladiators, batting first - 166 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in their 20 overs; Jason Roy 82 (64) Karachi Kings, batting second - 143 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their 20 overs; Joe Clarke 52 (39)
Player of the Match: Khurram Shahzad - [4-0-22-4]
Quetta Gladiators beat Karachi Kings by 23 runs.
What seemed to be a steady and assured run chase at the halfway stage of the 2nd innings turned out to be too much for Karachi Kings as they have now become the first team in PSL history to win only one match in an edition.
Babar Azam and Joe Clarke got Karachi off to a very good start with the former scoring the runs at his own pace and the latter taking the bowling on and finding the boundaries regularly. The Quetta bowling did not find any answers against the opening partnership as things looked bleak for Sarfaraz Ahmed's side, till the time Babar played on.
Sharjeel Khan joined forces with Joe Clarke and the pair threatened to take the match away extremely quickly from the Gladiators, with some powerful hitting. But like Babar, Sharjeel went, bowled to Khurram Shahzad, leaving a bit too much for Clarke to do to finish things off. And that turned out to be the difference as Joe Clarke played a rash shot under pressure to Mohammad Irfan and got castled, leaving two young and inexperienced Karachi batters to take their side home.
Naseem Shah and Khurram Shahzad were clinical at the end as well, with both hitting the right lengths and bowling at their respective paces to both take wickets and check the flow of runs. The second last over from Shahzad saw a no-ball that created a window of opportunity for Karachi Kings to come back into the match, but he then came back to take two crucial wickets to almost put to bed, all the remaining Karachi hopes.
Ashir Qureshi too bowled the last over well and Quetta pulled off a fine victory on a tricky pitch to bat on.
In the 1st innings, after the initial few overs, it got more and more difficult to time the ball properly and hit it to the boundaries. But Jason Roy's batting. almost right through the innings, ensured that one end was anchored, and that Quetta could put up a score of over 160 on the board.
Quetta Gladiators keep a glimmer of hope alive still for play-off qualification, with Islamabad United playing later on tonight against Multan Sultans. If the Mohammad Rizwan-led side can hammer the Islamabad team tonight to a comprehensive victory, Sarfaraz and his side can go through. So Quetta will keep their fingers crossed for this one, though the odds are stacked in favour of Islamabad.
That is all for now from the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, but do not forget to tune in to Sportskeeda for the second match of the day! It was an absolute pleasure bringing you all the live action till now, please allow us now - the pair of Pradeep and Bidipto - to take your leave!
Quetta Gladiators captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed: Our batters did try their best to put a big total on the board but the pitch was not that easy to bat on. We won the match though, let's see what happens now, hope Islamabad does not come out to bat tonight! But yes, Khurram Shahzad was brilliant in only his second game. Naseem was good right throughout, we really cannot complain of our bowling, that' for sure.
Karachi Kings captain, Babar Azam: There were positives for sure but we could not delight our fans unfortunately. The injuries did not help us. Mir Hamza was excellent though, but on the whole, the prospect that we had, unfortunately could not bear fruit this season.
Khurram Shahzad has been adjudged the Player of the match for his splendid spell of bowling, picking up four scalps!
Shahzad: I always try to land the ball in the right areas, it came off very well today and I'm quite happy with the end result. Yes, have played just two matches but I got a lot to learn from the peers who I share dressing room with, I always stay positive and perform well.
Quetta Gladiators manage to get the win by 23 runs!
20
overs
143/8score
W
1
1
0
1
1
runs
Umaid Asif
2(3)
Usman Shinwari*
2(2)
Ashir Qureshi
1/31
19.6 Ashir Qureshi to Usman Shinwari, THAT'S IT! IT'S ALL OVER! Gladiators win the crucial encounter but they haven't been able to better the net run rate, depends a lot on the next game that is coming up. Length delivery on the off-stump, Shinwari comes down the track and mistimes it past mid-wicket for a single.
19.5 Ashir Qureshi to Umaid Asif, OH MY GOODNESS! Now Roy who almost pulled up a blinder, length delivery on the off-stump, Asif clobbers it down to long-off, Roy comes flying to his right, gets a hand to it, but as he goes down the ball comes out of the hand as well, he has a laugh in the end.
19.4 Ashir Qureshi to Umaid Asif, fires a short delivery on the fourth stump line, Asif has a big hoick but misses, through to the keeper.
19.3 Ashir Qureshi to Usman Shinwari, tossed up a good length, turning into Shinwari on the middle and off, goes down his knee to heave, goes through to mid-wicket for just a single.
Video
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B Azam
J Roy
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Umaid Asif
Ashir Qureshi
Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
