3 runs remaining, 15,000 people watching, zero nails left on fingers with Mustafizur Rahman running into bowl to Andre Russell. Andre Russell the man who hasn’t played international league cricket in 14 months, Andre Russell the man who is the most sought after T20 player in the world, Andre Russell the man who wins it for Islamabad United, Andre Russell the man.
The feelings after the last ball of the game were “what just happened?”, everyone in the ground could not believe what a game they had just witnessed. These things are rare, winning a game with a last ball 6 is rare, A super over is rare, defending a low total in T20 games is rare and all that combined together to form one of the most memorable matches if not the most memorable PSL match.
Lahore Qalandars won the toss and elected to bowl first in a game which was delayed by half an hour due to uncharacteristic rain in Sharjah. Salman Irshad made his Lahore Qalandars debut, while Rumman Raees (injury), Steven Finn and Chadwick Walton made way for Sahibzada Farhan, Samit Patel, and Andre Russell.
1st Innings
In a surprising move, Fakhar Zaman opened the bowling and it was instantly rewarded as Luke Ronchi missed a straighter one, the opening over just saw 2 runs being scored. Sahibzada Farhan was the next go with the score being 18/2 after 4 overs.
Duminy and Misbah then faced 25 balls and scored just 11 runs in that partnership in which they faced Sunil Narine who was turning the ball and beating both edges of the bat. Salman Irshad the Kashmir boy broke that partnership in what was his first ball in the PSL. Islamabad after 10 overs had just scored 40 runs, but they had the batting to make up for the slow start.
The last 10 overs saw Islamabad United score 81 runs, with Hussain Talat scoring 33 runs in 21 balls, those runs were much needed on a Sharjah pitch where the ball was turning and keeping low.
Islamabad United would need to bowl well and fight for every run if they wanted to win this game.
2nd Innings
Samit Patel opened the bowling and he picked 2 wickets in the first over, Umar Akmal LBW and Fakhar Zaman LBW as well. A dream starts for Islamabad United.
But Agha Salman the Lahore boy walked out to bat and scored 48 runs in 35 balls, he was reading Shadab’s variations well and was not afraid to play the big shots. At that stage it did look like his innings would be a match-winning one. But his dismissal kick-started a collapse when he was dismissed LQ needed 45 runs in 53 balls.
Brendon McCullum was playing a patient knock, given that Lahore Qalandars did not have the batting to chase this down his strategy to take it to the end made sense for LQ.
There was a stage when Lahore needed 54 runs in 60 balls with 8 wickets in hand, but this is where Misbah’s captaincy came through as he ensured that runs were not scored easily with some smart field placements and some good bowling from Mohd Sami (conceded 4 runs and picked 2 wickets) and Andre Russell (conceded 4 runs) , this brought down the equation to 37 runs in 30 balls with an over each from Mohd Sami, Samit Patel, Shadab Khan and Andre Russell.
Those final 5 overs was one of the most entertaining phases of the PSL. Lahore Qalandars lost 6 wickets for 36 runs and the game ended up being a tie, the first tie in the Pakistan Super League and that meant the first Super Over in the PSL.
Super Over
Mohd Sami was the obvious choice to bowl the super over, the first ball did go for a 6 but Misbah’s genius as a captain was evident as he moved fine leg a bit to the right and that got rid of Brendon McCullum. A fortunate edge for Umar Akmal saw him score a 6 and the final ball went for 2 runs, Islamabad United needed 16 runs to win PSL’s first super over.
Andre Russell and Asif Ali walked out to bat for Islamabad United, while Mustafizur Rahman was going to bowl for LQ. A good first ball saw Russell get off strike with a single but then Asif Ali tonked the next ball between long on and cow corner, a mix up between Umar Akmal and Brendon McCullum saw the ball go for a 6. The next ball was short and wide which Asif Ali missed, Russell had a mid-pitch conference where the brief was to get him on strike, which happened off the next ball as Ramdin fumbled a routine take and Russell was on strike.
Islamabad United needed 8 runs in 2 balls, this is where nerves of steel shows. Mustafizur Rahman bowled a wide one, the equations were down to 7 runs in 2 balls, Fizz bowled short and Russell pulled it over the keeper for 4 runs. The last ball of the match, 3 runs needed to win anything less than a 3 would mean a win for Lahore Qalandars. Mustafizur bowled a length ball on a line which was good enough for Andre Russell to free his arms and get the hit which saw the ball sail over Brendon McCullum for a 6.
Islamabad United just won a thriller in Sharjah, a game which had some good bowling, some good batting, and some ridiculously good fielding. It was Islamabad United who came out on top.
It did not take long for Andre Russell to be called Andre Russell Miandad, a final ball 6 to win a game in Sharjah as Islamabad United took revenge for the bat drop with some interest.