1. The side winning the toss last season went on to win 20 of the 32 games, that’s a win percentage of 62.5% for sides winning the toss.
Islamabad United lost 5 tosses on the bounce last season, now it’s not an excuse but the side needed to win the toss and do what they like doing which is chase, they were denied that cause of that toss.
So after being on the other side of the result for 5 consecutive tosses, Islamabad United won their first toss of PSL 6 and as has been the norm when they won the toss they elected to chase. Something which Islamabad United have loved doing, having won 20 of their 26 games when chasing before the match, make that 21 out of 27 games now.
2. Islamabad United picked a very flexible side with 8 bowling options and batting till 11.
This gave the side some breathing space in the bowling, they had 3 spinners among the 8 options with a Leggie, Slow left arm spinner & a finger spinner so they could be deployed as and when needed.
The pacers also had their variations, with some seam ups from Lewis Gregory, Hasan Ali with his pace and swing. Faheem Ashraf with his skiddy bowling and Mohd Waseem Junior with his ability to extract extra bounce.
There was a lot of variety in ISLU’s bowling attack and it was used well by the side.
3. Mohammad Wasim Jr. made his T20 debut today. But he has come with some solid performances, Abdul Razzaq has said that he was the fastest bowler in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy.
So expectations were high when he came on to bowl, his first over went for 10 runs, understandable given it’s your debut. But Wasim Jr. did make a comeback conceding 7, 5 & 7 runs in his next 3 overs along with 3 wickets to boot.
In his final over, which was the penultimate over of the Multan innings, where he got rid of a well set Mohd Rizwan with an accurate yorker and conceded just 3 runs till his final ball found the edge for 4 runs.
4. Islamabad conceded 92 runs in the first 11 overs at 8.37 runs per over, , in the final 9 overs of the innings they conceded 58 runs at 6.44 runs per over.
Islamabad United brought down the Multan Sultans scoring rate by picking wickets and minimising the boundary balls. Multan lost 3 wickets in the first 11 overs, while they lost 5 wickets in the final 9 overs.
When it comes to boundaries. It was where Islamabad United really choked Multan Sultans. The first 11 overs saw United concede 66 runs in boundaries, that’s 6 runs in boundaries per over, the final 9 overs they tightened their lines & lengths, varied the pace and conceded just 22 runs which is 2.4 runs in boundaries per over.
5. Boundaries are the currency of T20 cricket, the side who score more boundaries, tend to win more games through the season.
Multan Sultans scored 88 runs in boundaries through their 20 overs. The most runs in boundaries in an innings this series. If Islamabad United were to win this game, they would need to out hit Multan Sultans.
The good thing for this Islamabad United side is that they bat all the way down to 11, so there was enough batting for the side to go after the attack whenever they had the chance without the fear that there were no quality batsmen left in the side, the end result was Islamabad United out scoring Multan Sultans with the boundaries, scoring 94 runs compared to Multan’s 88 runs. Islamabad United scored those 94 runs in an over less than Multan Sultans did.
6. Islamabad United needed 73 runs in 48 balls at 9.13 runs per over, when Faheem was dismissed the equation was down to 34 runs in 24 balls with the required run rate being 8.5 runs per over.
Faheem scored 22 runs in his 12 balls, changing the momentum of the innings and bringing Islamabad United back in the game, while he could have taken his time, his approach to attack instead put the pressure back on Multan Sultans and ensured that the chase was still controllable for Islamabad United.
7. Making his Islamabad United debut, Lewis Gregory showed how valuable he is to the side with both his skills. In the first innings, he picked 2 wickets for 31 runs, the first wicket was of the dangerous James Vince and the second of Khushdil Shah. Both at crucial junctures of the game. These fall of wickets kept pulling Multan Sultans a bit back just when they would have been looking to attack.
This would have been good performance for a bowler, but Lewis Gregory was required to bat today and he delivered with 49 runs in 31 balls, when he walked Islamabad United were in a spot of bother, so it was upon him to build a partnership and around him the team rebuild the innings which he did with the help of Faheem Ashraf.
With 20 runs needed in the final 12 balls, Lewis Gregory took on Sohail Tanvir to effectively ice the chase and secure Islamabad United’s first win of the season.