Abrar, Wasim three-fors keep Quetta Gladiators unbeaten
Islamabad United scored the lowest first-innings total of PSL 2024 and went down for their second loss in three games
Associated Press
23-Feb-2024
Abrar Ahmed bagged three wickets • Getty Images
Quetta Gladiators 139 for 7 (Roy 37, Rossouw 34*, Shadab 2-24) beat Islamabad United 138 for 9 (Salman 33, Abrar 3-18, Wasim 3-20) by three wickets
Quetta Gladiators overcame a late batting collapse to beat Islamabad United by three wickets on Thursday for their third straight win in the Pakistan Super League.
Quetta dismantled United's batting through spinners and restricted them to this season's lowest total of 138 of 9.
United pushed for an unlikely win when they grabbed three late wickets off eight balls. Naseem Shah (2-34) knocked back the off stump of Sherfane Rutherford (29), Akeal Hosein was run-out when he went for a needless third run, and Mohammad Wasim (1) was clean bowled by Shadab Khan (2-24) while attempting a reckless swipe at the Islamabad skipper.
Mohammad Amir showed plenty of courage to smash two boundaries with captain Rilee Rossouw scoring an unbeaten 34 as Quetta reached 139-7 with 10 balls to spare.
Quetta joined Multan Sultans at the top of the leaderboard with six points from three games. Islamabad has lost back-to-back games and has two points.
Jason Roy had provided Gladiators a brisk start of 51 in the powerplay when the Englishman smashed 37 off 18 balls before he played fast bowler Hunain Shah's PSL debut ball back onto his stumps. Hunain is one of the three brothers picked by Islamabad this season along with Naseem and Ubaid.
Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was relieved from the Gladiators captaincy after leading the franchise for eight seasons in a row, could make only one before he was trapped leg before wicket by Shadab before Rutherford and Rossouw combined in a 62-run stand.
Earlier, after being sent in to bat, United faltered after cruising along at 69-1 in the first seven overs. Salman Ali Agha (33), who was dropped by Amir early in his knock, Alex Hales (21) and Colin Munro (20) all couldn't convert good starts and threw away their wickets.
Abrar Ahmed (3-18) and Hosein (2-32) dismantled Islamabad's batting power-house on a slow and dry wicket while Wasim ran through the lower order with 3-20 that included wickets of Faheem Ashraf and Rumman Raees off the last two balls of the innings.
Hales smashed Hosein for back-to-back sixes before he went for a needless third big hit against the left-arm spinner and was caught at covers. Munro and Agha both miscued big shots and were caught in the deep as Islamabad lost eight wickets for 69 runs in the last 13 overs.