KARACHI: The return home for the Karachi Kings was not what they had anticipated. The ninth HBL Pakistan Super League season arrived in the city on Wednesday, but the attendance at the National Bank Stadium was small and the atmosphere was almost nonexistent.
The Kings appeared to have succumbed to the depressing atmosphere, as they shown no resistance against Islamabad United, who easily defeated them by seven wickets.
Colin Munro and Alex Hales of Islamabad launched an early assault, appearing to change the surface as Karachi batted. Both players are seasoned veterans.
Hales and Munro put up a 108 opening stand, but they both went out after scoring 47 off 35 balls and 82 off 47, respectively.
Imad Wasim lost his wicket early as a result of their dismissals, which did slow down Islamabad’s progress. However, Salman Ali Agha scored 25 off 17 to get his team over the finish line with nine balls remaining, while Karachi felt guilty for not doing more after the visitors had put them in to bat earlier.
Karachi had a rocky start, and things didn’t pick up until much later in the innings when Kieron Pollard and Irfan Khan Niazi made some sort of apologies.
By the beginning of the 14th over, Karachi had lost five wickets for just 89 runs. Pollard, unexpectedly for the former West Indies player, prodded for singles and doubles through much of his time on the crease for his unbeaten 48 from 28 balls.
Irfan, on the other hand, made careful to follow the experienced player’s lead and ended up making a cameo of 27 points out of 22.
Following a sluggish start by Karachi, for whom the top-order batsmen failed to materialize, both were forced to prolong their time in the middle.
After being tricked by Imad Wasim’s fly, Tim Seifert of New Zealand, who had only joined the Kings the day before, was the first to fall, being stumped by Islamabad wicketkeeper Azam Khan as early as the second over.
Despite Leus de Plooy’s counterpunching effort as he came in as first drop, the early wicket kept Karachi confined to 46-1 by the end of the powerplay.
De Plooy was well away from the crease when Azam dropped a delivery that would have put him out of the game, but Salman clean bowled the Englishman on the following ball.
Hunain Shah’s yorker knocked Shan, who was having trouble scoring runs and was scoring at a rate lower than run-a-ball, for nothing as the right-hander sent the off-stump skyward.
At the midway point, Karachi were 73-3, and things got worse when Shadab, at short-cover, picked up a quick ball and threw it, taking advantage of confusion in the middle to remove Shoaib Malik in the 11th over.
With Irfan and Pollard on the crease, Mohammad Nawaz chipped Naseem into Shadab’s hands at cover, stalling the game even more.
After three overs, Pollard struck again, this time with an off-stump yorker after flicking Rumman Raees’ medium pace for four. This brought up Karachi’s hundred.
Irfan took Rumman for three fours in the penultimate over, while Pollard smashed the first six of the innings in the final over.
But Karachi was never even close to a competitive total with their approach.
United’s answer was devastating right away, as in the third over, Hales hit pacer Mir Hamza for two consecutive boundaries before Munro made the left-armer’s situation worse to finish it off.
By the end of the powerplay, Munro and Hales had combined to score six hundred and zero runs in each of the next three overs.
The pairing persisted even after the field limits were removed. As the batter passed the 50-run threshold in the eighth over, Munro struck Chinaman Tabraiz Shamsi for three straight sixes, one off a switch-hit and the other two slow sweeps over the leg-side boundary.
After he trapped bowler Hasan Ali to Irfan at midwicket in the 12th over, Hales was out, but Munro persisted, hitting Hasan over deep backway square for a further six.
After hitting a boundary off Nawaz in the fifteenth over, the former New Zealand opener was caught leg before wicket by the left-arm spinner two balls later.
The ball stayed low and slow after the openers returned to the pavilion, displaying aging indications on the court. But Imad played Shamsi straight into Shan’s hands at cover after a wayward ball, giving up his wicket.
Salman and Shadab Khan, who was introduced, both acknowledged the circumstances before the former hit Hasan for two nice sixes to end the game.
Islamabad United took victory by seven wickets in the end.
