Karachi: Despite some valuable contributions from James Vince and Muhammad Nawaz, the continued falling of wickets restricted Karachi Kings from scoring a moderate total of 165 against Quetta Gladiator in the 16th contest of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 9th edition at National Stadium Karachi on Thursday.
Earlier winning the toss, Quetta Gladiator Invited Karachi Kings to bat first. Quetta Gladiator took an early success when Akeal Hosein dismissed the skipper of Gladiator Shan Masood on just 2 runs. After an early loss, Gladiator 2nd opener Tim Seifert and number three batter James Vince managed to consolidate the innings and push the scoreboard ahead with a reasonable run rate.
Both added 59 runs partnership before Tim was dismissed by Usman Tariq on 21 in the 7th over. In the same over, Usman got rid of the other set batsman, James Vince, as well. He scored 37 runs on 25 balls. At this stage, the Kings were 64 for the loss of 3 wickets in 7 overs. Both batters were replaced by Shoaib Malak and Muhammad Nawaz. However, Malak also left after scoring just 12 runs on the bowling of Abrar Ahmad. Malak was replaced by Kieron Pollard, who faced almost the same situation in the previous game and scored crucial 48 runs for the side.
On the other hand, Nawaz showed some resistance and put some runs on the board. However, in the 14th over, Hosein dismissed him on 28. A couple of overs later, unlike the previous game, Pollard also departed on 13 on the bowling of Abrar Ahmad. The next was Hasan Ali, who was also removed by Abrar Ahmad on just 2 runs. At this stage, the Kings were 136 for 7 in 16.3 overs. In the 18th over, the Kings lost their 8th wicket when Muhammad Waseem removed Irfan Khan on 15. Later, the tail added some crucial runs to the total, including 25 crucial runs from Anwar Ali. Karachi Kings scored 165 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs.
From Quetta Gladiator, Abrar Ahmad was the leading wickets taker with 3 for 31 in 4 overs. Usman Tariq and Akeal Hosein bagged 2 wickets each, while Muhammad Waseem got one wicket.
Karachi Kings Team
Shan Masood (c), Tim Seifert (wk), James Vince, Shoaib Malik, Kieron Pollard, Mohammad Nawaz, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Anwar Ali, Hasan Ali, Zahid Mehmood, Blessing Muzarabani
Quetta Gladiators Team
Jason Roy, Saud Shakeel, Khawaja Nafay, Rilee Rossouw (c), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Akeal Hosein, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sohail Khan, Usman Tariq, Abrar Ahmed
