KARACHI: Young pacer Naseem Shah (5-20) performed brilliantly and Ahsan Ali (57*) scored his second successive half-century to give Quetta Gladiators their first win in two matches as they beat Karachi Kings by eight wickets in their second match. Gave. - Round fixture of HBL PSL 2022 at the National Stadium here on Saturday night.
Test cricketer Naseem Shah broke the Kings batting line-up and bundled them out for 113 runs in 17.3 overs. Ahsan then scored a scintillating half-century and Will Smeed scored 30 as the Gladiators raced to the target with 25 balls to spare, losing two wickets in the process.
Chasing a low score of 114, Will Sameed and Ahsan batted intelligently. He mixed aggression and defense brilliantly which helped him share 76 for the opening stand. Left-handed Mohammad Imran eventually provided a breakthrough for the Kings when they had English rookie cricketer Sameed, who was placed at deep point by Lamonby. Smed hit three fours and a six in his innings of 30 off 35 balls.
English Test cricketer Ben Duckett once again failed to get run out after scoring two runs. Sarfaraz then joined Ehsaan and the two smartly put their side on the line.
Ahsan, who scored a half-century in 42 balls, hit eight fours in an unbeaten innings of 43 balls. Captain Sarfaraz hit three fours in his innings of 16 not out in nine balls.
Mohammad Imran scored 1-23 runs in three overs. Naseem Shah was adjudged man of the match for his lethal bowling.
After being invited to bat, Karachi Kings suffered early hiccups when Sohail Tanvir dismissed Sharjeel Khan (10) and Joe Clarke (2) in the third over of the innings.
Sharjeel, who started his innings with two consecutive fours off Sohail Tanvir's first two balls, was caught in the deep by Ben Duckett after he was negotiated off nine balls. England wicket-keeper batsman Clarke was thrown in with a fine delivery. Devon-born 21-year-old Tom Lamonby (3), who has played for England Under-19s, also fell cheap, off Naseem Shah at short mid-wicket to Iftikhar Ahmed. On his next delivery, Naseem dismissed Mohammad Nabi (0) when he fired a rocket to keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed. And the Kings were gasping at 26-4 in the fifth over.
In his next over, Naseem Shah bowled Lewis Gregory (5), before Mohammad Nawaz took the wicket of rookie Mohammad Taha (6) on the Kings, which was placed in the deep by Luke Wood. And the Kings were reeling in at 46-6 in the tenth over. Captain Babar Azam also failed to go deep after a few quick strokes and dismissed Mohammad Hasnain to keeper Sarfaraz. Babar hit four fours in his 32 runs in 29 balls. In the next over, James Faulkner removed Amir Yamin, who was dismissed for 20 off ten balls by Naseem Shah at deep mid-off, hitting two sixes and a four. At that time the Kings were making 81-8 runs in the 13th over. Naseem then dismissed Mohammad Ilyas (7) as well as Imad Wasim (26) to bundle out the Kings for 113 runs in 17.3 overs. Imad hit one six and two fours in 22 balls. Naseem Shah, who had his career best performance in this format, got full support from Sohail Tanvir (2-29 in four). It was left-handed Sohail who created the early cracks in the Kings' batting by removing Sharjeel and Clarke in an over that put enormous pressure on the batting side, which never came out of it afterwards. This was the second consecutive defeat for Karachi Kings.
Earlier, Quetta had retained the same team that played against Peshawar Zalmi in their opener. Karachi Kings made a change in the line-up they fielded against Multan Sultans with Imad Wasim replacing Umaid Asif. Michael Gough and Shojab Raza supervised the match while Roshan Mahanama was the match referee.