354 days- it has been 354 days since Rumman Raees last played a cricket match in any format. The last team he played was Quetta Gladiators, almost a year later he is back from his injury against the same side. That was the story as the toss happened, the toss was won by Quetta Gladiators and they decided to bowl first so Rumman Raees would have to wait an innings to get back on the field.
Islamabad United made two changes, the first was Rumman Raees for Waqas Maqsood while Wayne Parnell came in for Phil Salt. Parnell’s inclusion added some extra bowling options for the side, while not compromising on the batting given how the rest of the team can compensate for Phil Salt.
Islamabad United did not start well as they lost Ronchi off the first ball, while Shadab Khan was the new number 3 for the side and he lasted 5 balls as Sohail Tanvir delivered a double wicket maiden. Rizwan,the next batsman, lost his wicket as Islamabad United slipped further behind in the game and had to play catch up early very early in the innings.
Islamabad United needed a partnership and it came courtesy Delport-Talat, who added 50 runs as it they tried to arrest the collapse. Fahad Ahmed who was playing his second game in the PSL, continued his rich vein of T20 form as he kept the United batsmen in check by beating them with the flight and turning the ball both ways. Fawad’s bowling in the middle overs was top notch, when he entered the bowling attack, ISLU were on 38/3, at the end of his spell they added 45 runs for just wickets, Fahad picked 3 of those wickets while conceding just 15 runs.
Husain Talat (30 runs in 18 balls) & Asif Ali (36 runs in 27 balls) were the only batsmen in the top order to have done well on this pitch, but they both failed to convert their starts and this issue was magnified due to the poor start.
Wayne Parnell, who was included mainly as an extra bowling option, showed the value of his batting as he added 41 runs in 20 balls. Smashing 7 boundaries and a 6, he struck the ball clean and was the main reason Islamabad United managed to post a competitive total of 157 runs with 8 wickets down.
Rumman Raees’s 354 day came to an end as he started off with a wide and then conceded a boundary off the next ball, but he did get the wicket of Rillee Rossouw as Quetta were down 2 wickets with just 32 runs on the board. What should have been the start of Islamabad trying to make a comeback into the match was just a false dawn.
Umar Akmal added 62 runs with Watson as he scored 44 runs in 28 balls to take the game away from Islamabad United, with Akmal doing the bulk of the scoring in the partnership it gave Watson time to bide his time. Shadab Khan was not at his effective best as he conceded 38 runs in his 4 overs without a wicket.
After Akmal was dismissed by Cameron Delport, 63 runs were needed in 49 balls. Islamabad needed wickets, but Watson had other plans as he raced from 34 in 33 balls after the fall of the 3rd wicket to 81 runs in 55 balls to chase down the total with 10 balls to spare.
Islamabad United will be disappointed with how things panned out for them on Sunday, but they did have some positives, scoring 157 runs after losing 3 wickets for 8 runs and the other positive being the return of Rumman Raees.