Mohammad Sami was named the man of the match for his hat trick which sealed a 12 run victory for Islamabad United, but it was the early spell from youngster Mohammad Musa who set up the 12 run victory for Islamabad United.
Now 12 runs in a T20 match is a comfortable margin to win by, but more so when you are defending a below par total of 158 on a pitch where 404 runs were scored in the previous match.
Batting first, Ronchi started the way he always know to start with a boundary off just his second ball, but the Zalmi bowlers were disciplined and didn’t give him room to free his arms, keeping him in check in his 14 ball stay.
Ian Bell who played his first game in the PSL provided the anchor role as he stuck around batting at 3, rotating strike while enabling the batsmen around him to play more freely. Islamabad added 126 runs with Bell, with 54 runs coming from his bat. All this while batting with a broken foot.
The partnership between Delport and Bell was a crucial one as they first stabilised the innings at 49/3 and then built the foundation for the later batsmen to just come and go for the shots. The 14th over from Umaid Asif was the kick start Islamabad needed, as they went from 88/3 at the end of the 13th over to 158/9 at the end of the innings adding 70 runs in 7 overs at 10 RPO.
But as mentioned earlier, on a good batting pitch, this was a below par total so Islamabad United would have to make it hard for the Zalmi batsmen to score their runs if they stand any chance of a win.
In comes Mohammad Musa, who made his T20 debut. Fun Fact: Musa was less than a year old when his captain Mohammad Sami made his international debut, he was given the 3rd over and also the task to get wickets. And boy did he deliver, with his first over going for a solitary run and the big wicket of Kamran Akmal. By the end of his first spell, Musa’s figures read 3 overs, 2 wickets and just 11 runs conceded as Zalmi were 3 wickets down needing 118 in 13 overs at 9.07 RPO.
The job was half done though, Islamabad needed to keep the required rate going up to make the chase harder for Zalmi’s Pollard and Sammy two batsmen who can hit big on their day.
Shadab Khan entered the attack, the required run rate was 9.5 RPO, by the end of his 3rd over the required run rate was 13.42 RPO. 11 runs in first 3 overs, was exactly what the side needed, the 7 overs after the powerplay saw Zalmi just score 29 runs with Shadab being the main behind the slow down.
At this point Zalmi were left with no choice but to hit out, Pollard did exactly that as he scored 51 in just 22 balls, but with no able support on the other end, the task of scoring at 13 an over was never going to be an easy one and more so with Sami, Musa and Faheem bowling in the death overs.
At the end it was Islamabad United who ran out winners, but it took a composed Bell innings and the brilliance of Musa early on along with Shadab Khan to get United a win which could be the catalyst they need for the rest of the tournament.