Known for starting slow, Islamabad United at the halfway of their campaign are 2nd on the table with 3 wins. If the win against Zalmi the night before was the win which could be earmarked as the one which kickstarted their run of winning cricket this season, the win over Karachi Kings was a statement of intent from the defending champions.
Shadab Khan, whose journey from an emerging player at Islamabad United to the captain of the side was complete as he made his captaincy debut with Mohammad Sami out due to injury, and he started off well by winning the toss and deciding to chase.
Rumman Raees came in place of Sami opened the bowling and got rid of the dangerous Colin Munro courtesy a fine catch from Hussain Talat in the deep and this was the start of things to come. Karachi Kings were 34/3 at the end of the powerplay with Munro, Ingram and Awais Zia back in the pavilion.
The World’s best T20 batsman Babar Azam was run out thanks to a good throw from Samit Patel, with him went the chance of Kings posting a strong total on the board to challenge the United batting, but his wicket and the breaks applied by Shadab Khan (4 overs, 0/18) saw them falter in the middle stages.
Aamer Yamin and Ben Dunk with their late hitting gave Karachi Kings a total of 143 to defend (funnily, it was the same total Lahore Qalandars had to defend earlier in the day against Quetta Gladiators) and with Lahore taking the game to final ball, there was some hope among Karachi fans that there is a small chance to win this match.
But the hopes disappeared quickly as Sahibzada and Ronchi killed the chase with their aggressive batting in the powerplay, by the end of the 4th over, the Islamabad United RR was down to less than run a ball down from the 7.2 RPO required when the innings began.
If Karachi had any chance to win this match, they would have needed the wicket of Like Ronchi. But Ronchi had other plans his early onslaught in the powerplay (3o runs in 12 balls) was a quick innings which was enough reason to break the back of the chase by bringing down the RRR to less than a run a ball.
With Ronchi’s big hits early on, which saw Sahibzada Farhan play the supporting cast role well as he scored a 28 ball 30 runs, but his role of giving Ronchi the strike was a role he did really well.
The quick wickets of Hussain Talat & Sahibzada Farhan saw Samit Patel walk in at 5, Patel has not batted much in the PSL but he can not be considered just a bowler who can bat a bit (He has 26 first class centuries, so think about it before calling him a bowling all rounder). With 59 more runs needed to seal victory and the asking rate below a run a ball, Samit could take his time here and score some runs to gain back some confidence.
Samit though decided that it’s the right time to announce himself in the PSL with the bat, scoring 45 runs in 30 balls, with 26 of his runs coming in 2 overs from Umer Khan and Usman Shinwari. Samit was so dominating that Luke Ronchi had to take a back seat and that’s not something which happens a lot at the PSL.