Islamabad United lifted themselves off the bottom position of the table with a convincing win against Karachi Kings in Sharjah. Luke Ronchi who was the Islamabad’s 2nd pick in the draft came good in a clinical win.
Misbah-ul-Haq won the toss and elected to chase on what was a good batting track in Sharjah. Islamabad United and Karachi Kings remained unchanged from their previous games.
1st Innings
The first 5 overs was bittersweet for Islamabad as they got rid of Joe Denly in the 2nd over through a gem of a delivery from Mohd Sami, but before that in the first over Andre Russell walked off with an injury while trying to save a boundary. During this phase, Sami and Samit Patel ensured that Karachi never got a quick start despite conceding 5 boundaries while conceding just 32 runs.
Faheem Ashraf was introduced in the final over of the powerplay and it was from this over until the 10th over — 18 runs conceded — where Islamabad kept things in real check, Faheem conceded one run in the final over of powerplay while Shadab ensured that Babar Azam and Khurram Manzoor didn’t score boundaries and reduced to them either playing defensive shots or rotating the strike. According to Mickey Arthur, this was the crucial stage of the game where Karachi Kings could have done more.
From the 10th over onwards, Karachi Kings made a significant effort to up the scoring rate given that they had 9 wickets in hand and the pitch was playing well for the batsmen, the 5 overs saw them score 57 runs. Babar Azam brought up his 50 in 47 balls and Khurram Manzoor did the same in 41 balls.
The final 5 overs of the innings started with a Faheem Ashraf over, in which he first got rid of Khurram Manzoor with a good short ball and then got rid of the dangerous Colin Ingram in the final ball of the over, the next over saw Hussain Talat who bowled his full quota of overs due to Russell’s injury get rid of Babar Azam of the final ball, Babar Azam scored a well composed 55 runs in 53 balls. Constant wickets in the final 5 overs (Karachi lost 5 wickets), meant that they lost momentum and they could not charge an imposing total scoring just 47 runs.
Faheem Ashraf was the pick of the bowlers as his back of the length delivery caused a lot of issues for the Karachi Kings batsmen, finishing with figures of 3 wickets for 23 runs. Karachi Kings scored 49 runs in their first 10 overs and 104 in the back 10, which was a clear display of how good a pitch this was to bat on.
2nd Innings
There was a bit of a surprise as Islamabad United’s opening pair walked out to bat, Luke Ronchi who has opened in all games this season had a new partner in JP Duminy. Islamabad started off the chase with the required run rate of 7.7 runs per over but by the end of the 5th over, this was down to 6.93 runs per over thanks to the quick 49 runs scored. Ronchi has attacked the Karachi Kings left-arm seamers Mohd Amir (26 runs scored in 2 overs) and Usman Shinwari (22 runs in 2 overs).
Imad Wasim bowled the final over of the powerplay and conceded 12 runs, Islamabad United kept up this scoring even after the powerplay scoring 49 runs between overs 6-10. Luke Ronchi brought up his 50 in 23 balls, in a phase when he scored 3 consecutive boundaries of a Tymal Mills overs.
Ronchi was finally dismissed in the 11th over off a good catch from Mohd Irfan Junior, he scored 71 runs in 37 balls at 11.51 runs per over, his quick innings meant that rest of the batsmen had to score 83 runs in 83 balls which is easily manageable. Ronchi’s dismissal did get in some lull for a while as only 28 runs were scored from the 11th to the 15th over, in a period when Hussain Talat got out cheaply as well.
Islamabad United needed 28 runs in the final five overs, but they finished it off with 16 balls to spare. Asif Ali finished the match off with a 6 and ended Karachi King’s unbeaten streak in the PSL.
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Islamabad United now are in the top 4 of the PSL and are just behind Peshawar Zalmi on NRR at the halfway point of the PSL. With the next 2 games in Dubai, Islamabad has a chance to further make their way to the top 2.