KARACHI: The National Bank Stadium was packed with more people than it was a day earlier, and there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air. Even though half of their team had food sickness, the Karachi Kings were still present.
The West Indies’ Sherfane Rutherford and Akeal Hosein had different ideas, but the host team, starting from a disadvantage because several of their key players were missing, punched above their weight and had the Quetta Gladiators firmly under control.
When Hosein joined Rutherford, the Gladiators had five wickets remaining and needed to score 80 off the final eight overs. The two left-handers then unleashed a powerful display of power.
Rutherford and Hosein each smashed a six in the next five balls after captain Rilee Rossouw left, relieving strain on Quetta, who needed 44 off 24 balls.
After square-leg dismissing Hasan, Rutherford picked pacer Blessing Muzarabani and took him up and over wide long-on for another maximum.
In the penultimate over, he hit Hasan for another six. In the last over, he cleared the long-off boundary to hit Anwar Ali for two more sixes.
Anwar delivered two well-aimed yorkers for dots while still having to defend three off four balls. He then delivered a low, full toss, which Rutherford hammered to backward point, where it was expertly handled.
Under normal circumstances, it probably wouldn’t even be a single, but Rutherford nicked two off the delivery as chaos broke out on the field as Anwar desperately blocked his path. The Guyanese proceeded to flick for four, guiding the Gladiators to victory with five wickets remaining.
Operator Jason Roy’s 52 off 31 set the groundwork for Rutherford’s (58 off 31) and Hosein’s (22 off 17) chase. Roy was the only Gladiators batter to take the attack to the Kings.
Against Muhammad Nawaz, Roy twice cleared long-on for sixes and, in the third over, he creamed the spinner through square on the off-side for four.
However, his opening partner Saud Shakeel was dismissed on the final ball of the powerplay; after Roy had drawn the right-armer for six, the left-hander found Irfan Khan Niazi at square off Hasan.
After Khawaja Nafay was dismissed in the ninth over after he was caught by Irfan’s bucket hands at long-on off leg-spin from Zahid Mahmood, wicket-keeper Tim Seifert then caught Sarfraz Ahmed off Hasan in the next over with an incredible effort down the leg-side.
After spoiling the momentum with a no-ball to start the next over, the right-armer was crushed for six over square-leg by Roy on the ensuing free hit, taking the score to 83-3 halfway through the batting innings.
Then came the big blow: in the twelfth over, the seasoned off-spinner Shoaib Malik forced Roy to take a top-edge and made the catch himself. When Rossouw discovered Irfan at the wide long-on boundary, he lost patience and became Zahid’s first victim. This resulted in the match leaning in favor of the Kings until Rutherford and Hosein stole it.
The spin combination of Usman Tariq, Hosein, and Abrar Ahmed took advantage of the sluggish surface to prevent the hosts from establishing a rhythm, even though the Kings had started the innings rather well after being placed in bat earlier.
Usman, in particular, was nearly unplayable for the Karachi batters with his unconventional bowling approach, which involves a crisp run-up followed by a pause and toss. He finished with figures of 2-16 in four overs without giving up a single boundary.
After Shan Masood was removed by Hosein early on, the Karachi opener Seifert and first-drop James Vince piled up 57 off 36 balls between them. He then claimed the vital wickets of both players.
Following the departure of Seifert and Vince, none of the Karachi batters was able to make a significant impact, but they all made little contributions that helped the team reach a competitive total.
Vince made sure Karachi didn’t back down, particularly by hitting Abrar with three straight fours as they concluded the powerplay at 61-1.
However, Usman’s first ball trapped Seifert (21 off 11) leg before wicket with a ball that curled sharply inwards to strike the right-hander’s pads, and the penultimate ball of the over did the same to Vince (37 off 25).
Karachi was put on the defensive after the wickets, but Nawaz shut down bowler Muhammad Wasim Jr. three times in a succession to put his team up to 91-3 at the interval.
Abrar was exposed to Rossouw by Malik, and Hosein was then sliced by Nawaz (28) directly into Abrar’s hands. In the last over, Anwar smashed the bowler for two booming sixes and slid Wasim for a four, setting up a last-ball finish. Abrear had cleaned up Pollard and had Hasan caught.
