Quetta Gladiators beat Islamabad United by five wickets in high-scoring thriller

Quetta Gladiators registered their third win in this year’s Pakistan Super League (PSL) by chasing down the massive 200-run target set by Islamabad United in the high-scoring thriller at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.  Gladiators reached the target in 19.4 over courtesy of Sarfaraz Ahmed’s match-winning half-century and Umar Akmal’s blazing cameo of 23 runs in just eight balls.

While chasing the huge total, Gladiators were provided a brilliant 88-run opening stand by Ahsan Ali and Jason Roy who was in the runs once again with his brilliant 54-run knock.

Though, both the openers were dismissed in quick succession, James Vince held the innings by scoring 29 runs before he was dismissed by Shadab Khan. Iftikhar Ahmed was sent back for just four runs as the required run rate soared. But it was Sarfaraz Ahmed and Umar Akmal’s show in the late overs which stole the limelight.

Umar in his comeback match played a crucial cameo of 23 runs in just 8 balls with three huge sixes before he was dismissed in the 18 over by Wasim.

In the last over Sarfaraz finished the match fittingly by hitting the boundary and also reached the brilliant half-century For United, Shadab was brilliant with the bowl with figures of 3-25 in four overs, Liam Dawson picked one wicket while other bowlers including Hasan Ali, Wasim, and Faheem were smashed.

Islamabad United posted a huge 199-run total courtesy of Alex Hales and Faheem Ashraf’s entertaining half-centuries after they were invited to bat first by the Quetta Gladiators skipper Sarfaraz. United were provided with a quick-fire 48 run opening stand by Hales and Rehmanullah Gurbaz. Gurbaz was clean bowled by Naseem Shah, but Hales continued to carve out runs.

Hales also launched a 52-run second-wicket stand with United skipper Shadab Khan who could only manage to score 12 runs. Hales scored 62 runs off 38 balls with four sixes and four fours.

Other batters Asif Ali, Azam Khan, Mohammad Akhlaq, and Liam Dawson also failed to play a huge knock. But it was Faheem Ashraf who came to the rescue as he played a brilliant inning of 55 runs off 28 balls with the help of four sixes and five fours.

In the end, Mohammad Wasim launched two successive sixes to take the total to 199. For Gladiators’ all the bowlers went to the cleaners except Shahid Afridi and Noor Ahmed by registering a brilliant economy rate of 6.75.

Afridi took two wickets for 27 runs in four overs, while Noor took one by giving away 27 runs in the four-over spell.