Good teams always bounce back from poor performances and Islamabad United did exactly that in their second game of the season against Multan Sultans.
Chasing 165 runs after deciding to bowl first, the Kiwi opening pair of #MunRonchi gave United the start they needed scoring 63 runs in the powerplay overs — the highest powerplay score of this edition — and if you thought the end of powerplay overs would slow things down, Ronchi was in no mood for that as he continued going for the big hits at one stage taking down Moeen Ali for 19 runs.
Ronchi and Munro’s performances were stellar given how the pair failed in the opening game, this is a side which trusts the process and isn’t affected by the results. Islamabad United’s easy chase is down to United’s bowling making the total an easily chase able total.
Winning the toss and electing to bowl first, which they have done every time they won the toss. Islamabad United started well with the ball, going for just 10 runs in the first 3 overs, Vince was looking good for a big inning and in-process catapulting Multan Sultans to a strong total along with Moeen Ali and Roussouw still in the pavilion. But a double-wicket over changed the tide of the match.
Amad Butt was the bowler of that double-wicket over, his variations of pace made it hard for the batsman line him up and go after him. Amad continued his good work later in the innings by getting rid of James Vince and later Sohail Tanvir. Ending up with 4 wickets for 27 runs.
The highlight of the Sultans innings was Zeeshan Ashraf, the wicket-keeper batsman who was the PSL’s first wild card pick, played an impressive inning scoring 50 runs in 29 balls. What was lovely to see was his stroke play, all of his shots were high-value cricketing shots. His innings was the difference between Islamabad United chasing 155 and ending up chasing 165.
Next up, Islamabad United take on Lahore Qalandars in Lahore.