KARACHI: Many in the capacity crowd here at the National Stadium were flashing their cellphone torches from the stands towards the playing field. The lights seemed to blind the Lahore Qalandars batters, who fell one after one, getting close to an eventual 67-run defeat on Sunday.

For hosts Karachi Kings, the lights seemed to be those that would illuminate their prospects at the HBL Pakistan Super Lea­gue, wh­i­ch had looked dark ahead of the box office fixture.

The Kings’ captain Imad Wasim was the central figure in the side’s maiden victory in the league’s eighth season after three losses, which had created an embarrassing situation for the all-rounder, who had been taking pride in his side replacing former skipper Babar Azam with “match-winners”.

After being bashed on social media for indirect com­ments directed at Pakis­tan’s most popular sports figure, Imad spoke with his bat, smashing an unbeaten 35 off 19 to power his team to 185-5 before cramping the Lahore batters for runs and forcing a stumping against Hussain Talat to effectively wrap up Lahore’s innings.

All the promise that Lahore showed was only at the start of their chase, with opener Tahir Baig threatening to take it away from Karachi early, when he lifted Akif Javed – who was playing his first match for the franchise – for 17 runs in the second over, which saw the right-hander lift Akif for two sixes off his hips.

But once Aamer Yamin castled Tahir’s partner Fakhar Zaman in the fifth over, Lahore never truly showed any signs of recovery. First drop Shai Hope followed Fakhar in the next over, thanks to a flying effort by Irfan Niazi at point to give Mohammad Amir his first wicket as the scoreboard read 47-2 by the end of powerplay.

Tahir and Kamran Ghulam tried to rebuild the innings for Lahore, but Imad’s nagging line and length and that of leg-spinner Imran Tahir kept the duo at bay and their run-a-ball partnership for 41 runs when Tahir (45 off 39) skied Akif for wicket-keeper Matthew Wade to take an easy catch two balls before the bowler got Kamran.

After Imad undid Hussain in the 14th, Aamer Jamal sent back David Wiese before Ben Cutting got Sikandar Raza and Lahore captain Shaheen Shah Afridi on consecutive deliveries of the 17th over.

Akif wrapped up proceedings with two lower-order wickets in the next over to register figures of 4-28 in 3.3 overs.

Karachi’s decision to drop opener Sharjeel Khan and replace him with Wade at the top of the order proved just right as the Australian put up a brilliant partnership with James Vince to give the hosts a blistering start – something they hadn’t got in the first three matches.

The duo had powered Karachi to 61-0 in the powerplay thanks to industrious running between the wickets and intelligent shot sele­c­tion. Against the attacking pace pair of Shaheen and Zaman Khan, Vince and Wade waited for the right ball to play their shots – one of which was an exquisite straight drive by Vince off Shaheen in the second over.

Wade, who was playing against Shaheen for the first time since he bludgeoned the bowler for three sixes to help Australia eliminate Pakistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup semi-final, stayed careful against the pacer this time.

Both the openers turned it up against David Wiese’s medium pace in the fifth over, hitting a six each before Wade paddled and pulled Haris Rauf for two boundaries. The partnership of 70 off 43 balls came to an anticlimactic end when Wade (36 off 24) was run out in an attempt to steal a double off Liam Dawson.

Vince kept going but his partners on the other end in Haider Ali and Shoaib Malik fell early after showing promise. Haider’s problems with temperament continued as the mercurial right-hander was cleaned up by Dawson after smashing a boundary and a six for 19 off 16 before Malik was undone by a rising bouncer by Haris to get caught behind cheaply.

Vince (46 off 36) had his time at the crease cut short by Zaman’s yorker that crashed into his stumps in the 14th over, leaving Kara­chi under pressure at 124-4, with two new batters in Im­ad and Cutting in the middle.

What followed was a crucial counter-attacking cameo by the duo – a 52-run partnership off 35 balls for the sixth wicket to drive Karachi to a solid total. The collaboration saw the batters hit some swashbuckling sixes against Shaheen and Haris.

The first of those came from the Karachi skipper’s bat against Haris as the ball travelled the distance down the ground. He hit a similar shot for another maximum against Shaheen before Cutting bludgeoned Imad’s Lahore counterpart for a towering six over square leg.

After Cutting (20 off 19) had finished an otherwise quiet penultimate over with a four off Haris, Shaheen returned to avenge the Australian with a fiery yorker that destroyed his stumps before Imad finished the innings with another four.

SCOREBOARD

MULTAN SULTANS:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Shan Masood c Curran b Rumman 3 4 0 0 75.00

Mohammad Rizwan lbw b Shadab 50 38 5 1 131.57

Rilee Rossouw c van der Dussen b Curran 36 30 2 2 120.00

David Miller c Faheem b Wasim 52 25 3 4 208.00

Kieron Pollard not out 32 21 4 1 152.38

Khushdil Shah not out 3 2 0 0 150.00

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-4 (Shan), 2-95 (Rossouw), 3-97 (Rizwan), 4-175 (Miller)

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-13) 14

TOTAL (for four wickets, 20 overs) 190

DID NOT BAT: Carlos Brathwaite, Usama Mir, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ilyas, Ihsanullah

BOWLING: Rumman 3-0-25-1 (1w), Abrar 4-0-21-0 (3w), Faheem 2-0-20-0 (2w), Wasim 4-0-49-1, Shadab 3-0-42-1, Curran 4-0-32-1 (2w)

ISLAMABAD UNITED:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Paul Stirling c Miller b Ilyas 5 5 1 0 100.00

Hassan Nawaz c Usama b Ilyas 21 16 2 1 131.25

Rassie van der Dussen c Khushdil b Abbas 49 32 5 1 153.12

Colin Munro c Rizwan b Usama 31 23 1 2 134.78

Shadab Khan c Khushdil b Usama 1 3 0 0 33.33

Azam Khan b Abbas 16 14 2 1 114.28

Faheem Ashraf c & b Abbas 4 6 0 0 66.66

Tom Curran c Rizwan b Ihsanullah 1 2 0 0 50.00

Mohammad Wasim c Rizwan b Abbas 0 1 0 0 0.00

Rumman Raees not out 6 4 1 0 150.00

Abrar Ahmed b Ihsanullah 0 1 0 0 0.00

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-2, W-1) 4

TOTAL (all out, 17.5 overs) 138

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9 (Stirling), 2-32 (Hassan), 3-88 (Munro), 4-90 (Shadab), 5-112 (Azam), 6-131 (van der Dussen), 7-132 (Faheem), 8-132 (Wasim), 9-138 (Curran)

BOWLING: Khushdil 2-0-20-0, Ilyas 2-0-12-2, Brathwaite 3-0-29-0, Ihsanullah 3.5-0-19-2, Usama 4-0-33-2, Abbas 3-0-22-4 (1w)

RESULT: Multan Sultans won by 52 runs.

KARACHI KINGS:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Matthew Wade run out 36 24 4 1 150.00

James Vince b Zaman 46 36 3 2 127.77

Haider Ali b Dawson 18 16 1 1 112.50

Shoaib Malik c Hope b Haris 10 7 0 1 142.85

Imad Wasim not out 35 19 2 2 184.21

Ben Cutting b Shaheen 20 19 2 1 105.26

Irfan Khan not out 1 2 0 0 50.00

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-4, NB-3, W-10) 19

TOTAL (for five wickets, 20 overs) 18

DID NOT BAT: Aamer Yamin, Mohammad Amir, Imran Tahir, Akif Javed

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-70 (Wade), 2-102 (Haider), 3-120 (Shoaib), 4-124 (Vince), 5-176 (Cutting)

BOWLING: Shaheen 4-0-39-1 (2w), Zaman 4-0-34-1 (2w, 1nb), Wiese 1-0-15-0, Haris 4-0-35-1 (1w), Raza 4-0-27-0 (2w), Dawson 3-0-29-1 (1w)

LAHORE QALANDARS:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Fakhar Zaman b Aamer 15 12 2 0 125.00

Mirza Tahir Baig c Wade b Akif 45 39 3 2 115.38

Shai Hope c Irfan b Amir 1 2 0 0 50.00

Kamran Ghulam c Shoaib b Akif 23 22 3 0 104.54

Hussain Talat c Wade b Imad 2 4 0 0 50.00

Sikandar Raza c (sub) b Cutting 18 12 1 1 150.00

David Wiese c Shoaib b Aamer 9 9 1 0 100.00

Liam Dawson c Aamer b Akif Javed 1 2 0 0 50.00

Shaheen Shah Afridi c Wade b Cutting 0 1 0 0 0.00

Haris Rauf not out 0 0 0 0 -

Zaman Khan c Imran Tahir b Akif 0 2 0 0 0.00

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-2) 4

TOTAL (all out, 17.3 overs) 118

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-40 (Fakhar), 2-45 (Hope), 3-86 (Tahir), 4-87 (Kamran), 5-91 (Hussain), 6-106 (Wiese), 7-118 (Raza), 8-118 (Shaheen), 9-118 (Dawson)

BOWLING: Imad 4-0-23-1, Akif 3.3-0-28-4, Aamer 3-0-18-2, Amir 2-0-12-1 (2w), Tahir 4-0-23-0, Cutting 1-0-12-2

RESULT: Karachi Kings won by 67 runs.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2023