The opening day saw the two time defending champions Islamabad United take on the traditionally under performing PSL franchise Lahore Qalandars. But a lot has changed since the two sides last met. Islamabad United has changed their captain and so have Lahore Qalandars, besides bringing in the 360 man AB DeVilliers. So understandably besides being the opener, the hype for the match was justified.
Islamabad United won the toss and elected to chase, they have been a side who has loved chasing games and their record of 14 wins and 4 losses in chases prior to the game demonstrate their penchant for chasing. Chasing enables them to control their batting resources better to chase down a set target.
Islamabad United achieved the lowest economy rate in powerplay overs — conceding just 6.6 runs per over — this was largely down to Samit Patel, Mohammad Sami and Faheem Ashraf’s overs early on. However Lahore Qalandars came out with a plan to attack, with Fakhar Zaman doing most of the damage, at the end of powerplay he was batting on 33 after facing 21 balls which also included an over where he scored 15 runs off Samit Patel ensuring Patel stayed out of the attack for the rest of the innings.
Lahore continued their quick scoring rate till the 13th over as their scoring rate touched 9. But at that point, AB DeVilliers announced himself on the PSL stage by scoring 15 runs in a Talat over including 2 boundaries and a six. Lahore who were 116/1 at the end of the 13th over were looking good to score 180 plus. But last 41 balls of the Lahore innings saw them score just 49 runs while losing 7 wickets. Islamabad United with Delport and Waqas Maqsood added the much needed break for their team just as Lahore should have been looking to up their scoring rate.
Waqas Maqsood and Faheem Ashraf were the pick of the bowlers for Islamabad, Waqas Maqsood bowled economical overs in the powerplay conceding 12 runs in his 2 overs, while the other bowlers went for 40 runs in their 4 overs, and the conceding a further 12 runs in the death overs with his smart change in pace making him a difficult bowler to face specially against batsmen like Devcich and Brathwaite who prefer the ball coming at them with pace.
Faheem Ashraf another bowler who bowled to his strengths of hitting the “hard to hit” lengths regularly and varying the pace once in a while, he ensured that Lahore never ran away with the match in the early stages.
Islamabad United faced a target of 172 runs in their 20 overs, given the deep batting line up the side has at their disposal it was never a target out of hand. Ronchi continued his form from the previous PSL and gave the side a quick start. Nevertheless, Lahore Qalandars came back strong into the game as the final over of the PP saw the side lose their good start with 3 wickets to Rahat Ali. With the score reading 49/3 in 6 over with 123 runs needed in 14 overs, a partnership was needed to rebuild the innings. Given the depth of ISLU’s batting order, Talat & Delport leveraged their time to rebuild the innings even if the asking rate went up.
A collapse usually can create chaos in the dressing room, but the Talat & Delport partnership ensured that nothing of that sorts happened. They calmed the nerves of the team and brought them to the position of parity. When Asif walked out to bat Islamabad United needed 68 runs in 41 balls with Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf & Samit Patel yet to bat.
The next 37 balls of the match saw some pure hitting as Asif Ali showed why he is a dangerous batsman when he gets going, scoring two boundaries off Shaheen Shah Afridi and then spanking Rahat Ali for two sixes off the first 2 balls of the 18th over to effectively kill the game for Lahore Qalandars. He was well supported by Faheem Ashraf who scored 15 runs in his first 6 balls (eventually ending up with 23 in 11 balls) while Asif took his time to get going.
All in all, it was a complete team effort from Islamabad United as with the ball it was Delport, Waqas Maqsood and Faheem Ashraf who contributed while with the bat it was Delport, Talat, Asif Ali, Luke Ronchi and Faheem Ashraf. Truly a #UnitedWeWin performance setting tone for some good cricket for the rest of the tournament.