ISLAMABAD: In the first of the two Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches scheduled for today, Sunday, a resurgent Karachi Kings thumped Multan Sultans by 66 runs to register their second victory of the tournament, at the National Bank Arena in Karachi.
Batting first, the Kings had ample help from debutant Tayyab Tahir who scored an impressive half-century. Tahir smashed 65 runs from 46 balls in an inning that featured eight boundaries and a six. Other notable contributions were from the Kings opener Matthew Wade, who scored 46 runs from 47 balls while James Vince scored 36 from 12 balls.
However, when it was for the Sultans to bat, the Kings did an impressive job. After an opening stand of 44 between Muhammad Rizwan and Shan Masood, Akif Javed dismissed the latter to earn Karachi their first wicket.
The in-form Rilee Rossouw was clean-bowled by Shoaib Malik for 7 runs off 6 balls. Malik and fellow spinners Imad Wasim and Tabraiz Shamsi then laid to waste the Sultans’ middle and lower batting order, dismissing David Miller, Khushdil Shah, Usama Mir, Carlos Brathwaite, Akeal Hosein, and Abbas Afridi among themselves to hand Karachi another victory in the PSL.
The Sultans were dismissed for a bleak 101 runs from 16.3 overs. Malik and Shamsi ended up with figures of 3/16 and 3/18 respectively, while skipper Wasim took 2/34 and Javed ended up 2/8 from his two overs.
The win was an important one for the Kings, who are now placed at the number three spot on the PSL points table with four points from six matches at a run rate of +0.862.
Earlier, Sultans’ fiery right-arm pacer Ihsanullah impressed yet again after finishing with 2/22 from his four overs. Anwar Ali took one wicket and gave away 28 runs from his four overs.
