MULTAN: The Karachi Kings were in ruins, but the Multan Sultans were soaring high in the City of Saints.
In their first-ever HBL Pakistan Super League match on Sunday, the host team easily defeated the Kings by 55 runs. It appeared that the Kings’ reconstruction effort would take longer than expected.
The foreign combination of Reeza Hendricks and Dawid Malan from Multan hammered them for 185 runs, but the Kings never recovered as they continued to lose wickets at regular times.
David Willey (2-22) delivered a severe blow to their chase when he removed opener James Vince and Saad Baig in back-to-back deliveries of the third over.
Shan Masood, the captain and first man, hit two boundaries off Willey to get the Kings counterattack rolling in the fifth over. He and veteran Shoaib Malik then steadied the chase when Malik hit two sixes off Shahnawaz Dahani in the eighth over, causing the Sultans to lose 18 runs.
However, Shan mishandled a slog sweep from leg-spinner Usama Mir, allowing the Kings to be caught at deep midwicket, which put them in jeopardy. The next two overs saw no boundaries scored by Karachi, but in the 12th over, Malik hit Pakistani batsman Iftikhar Ahmed for a massive six and two boundaries.
All of effort was in vain, as Abbas Afridi (2-16) removed Mohammad Nawaz (53 off 35) and Malik (53 off 35) in the 14th over, after the latter had reached his fifty. This left the Kings requiring 86 runs in six overs with five wickets remaining.
Karachi’s suffering was exacerbated by pacer Mohammad Ali (3-23), who claimed two more wickets in the following over. Even though Kieron Pollard delivered a couple hard knocks, the Kings were unable to bounce back from that as their score at the conclusion of 20 overs was 130-8.
After Multan lost captain and talisman Mohammed Rizwan early on, Malan and Hendricks shared what turned out to be a pivotal stand of 121 off 84 balls.
However, Multan’s dismissal, a leg before wicket by left-arm pacer Mir Hamza, was unable to stop them from finishing the powerplay with a commanding 53-1 score.
The partnership between Malan and Hendricks was not without luck, as in the eighth over, the latter was dismissed off his own bowling by fellow Chinese bowler Tabraiz Shamsi of South Africa.
Though he appeared ready to take the risk, the left-armer managed to locate Hendricks’ leading edge and mishandled an easy grab. Shamsi’s situation worsened when Hendricks hit a misdirected delivery by the bowler for a four, extending his 50-run partnership with Malan.
The Multan hitters were having difficulty scoring runs, but they continued to do so by hitting one or two boundaries per over, easily reaching 89-1 at the midpoint.
But in the next three overs, which were bowled by experienced all-rounder Shoaib Malik and pacers Hasan Ali and Daniel Sams, Multan failed to score a six or a four, disrupting the run-flow.
The dry stretch was ended in the 14th over when Hendricks reached his half-century in 39 balls and Malan hit a half-tracker by Shamsi over the leg-side for four.
After scoring two more runs in the next over off 37 balls, Malan (52 off 41) accomplished the mark but was bowled out by Sams shortly after.
After Khushdil Shah arrived, Multan passed 150 in the eighteenth over thanks to a reverse sweep off Shamsi. In the final two overs, he and Hendricks (79 not out of 54) combined to score 23 runs.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
