Mohammad Sami vs Liam Dawson. 1 Ball, 4 runs. It all came down to this one ball, for now we can leave out everything which led to this moment. Liam Dawson on his birthday batting on 48 and Sami who has conceded 29 runs in 3.5 overs until this point. But before we talk about what happens in this one ball, let’s back up a little.
Islamabad United were sent in to bat, Ronchi who has been giving Islamabad united the quick start had a rare failure getting out for just 9. But Delport stuck in a run of low scores came back in form with a well-paced innings of 71 runs in 55 balls, playing the anchor role for the first part where he scored 45 in 39 and with the next 16 balls scoring 26 runs.
While Delport played the anchor role, the batsmen around him scored 72 runs in 43 balls at just over 10 RPO. Salt (28 in 18), Walton (22 in 14) and Asif (23 in 13) were the other contributors in the innings where Delport was the star of the show.
Zalmi made a strong comeback after Delport was dismissed, picking up 5 wickets while conceding just 29 runs in the final 22 balls of the innings. A phase in which Islamabad should have added 11 more runs, they ended up getting all out and setting a target lower than they envisioned at the halfway point of their innings when they were 84/2. The positive though at the innings break was that Islamabad United have not lost a match after scoring 160 or more in the first innings (Remember this stat, we will comeback to it later).
United did not start off well with the ball, conceding 45 in their first 4 which saw Kamran Akmal and Andre Fletcher score 19 runs in one Rumman Raees over. Shadab Khan came into the attack and calmed things down, the score when Shadab entered the attack was 45/1, at the end of his spell where he bowled 4 overs on the trot Zalmi were 83/3 adding 38 runs in the 8 overs which saw the required run rate jump from 8.25 to 10.44 RPO.
The required run rate climbed up further to 11.37 as Zafar Gohar dismissed Keiron Pollard in the 12th over by deceiving him in the air as he stepped out and Ronchi finished an easy stumping job. 91 runs required in the final 8 overs.
This should have been where Islamabad United sealed the game by increasing the required run rate. The batting side has no other option but to hit out against the Islamabad United attack, they have to take more risks now if they want to win this game. In comes Faheem Ashraf, who was taken apart for 27 runs as Zalmi wrestled control of the chase now.
But the see-saw battle between the two sides continued as Islamabad United just conceded 28 runs in the 4 overs after that Faheem over, with 36 runs needed in 18 balls and an over each from Rumman Raees, Faheem Ashraf and Mohammad Sami — United’s trusted death over bowlers — there was a more than decent chance for United to win this.
Dawson and Sammy who stitched together an 89 run partnership in 49 balls produced a partnership for ages as they kept Zalmi in the game in those 3 final overs, scoring 14 in Rumman’s final over to bring down the equation to 22 in 2 overs. Sammy did get a reprieve in the penultimate over as he was dismissed by Faheem but was given not out after the delivery was called a no-ball by the third umpire.
Mohammad Sami had 14 runs to defend in the final, conceding just 4 runs off the first 3 balls and 10 more to get. United looked confident but a huge Darren Sammy 6 kept Zalmi in the game, the penultimate ball saw Sammy get run out but Dawson was importantly on strike. The final over was a microcosm of the entire match with fortunes swinging wildly in favour of both sides.
The final ball now, 4 runs to get. Sami to Dawson. Sami bowls a full one, outside off stump. Dawson anticipated it and strikes it down the ground and it goes for a boundary. Zalmi wins a PSL classic, handing over Islamabad United their first loss after scoring 160 or more in the first innings.