KARACHI: Quetta Gladiators had fallen from grace just when they were at the top.

Crowned HBL Pakistan Super League champions in the 2019 edition, the Sarfraz Ahmed-led side failed to make it to the play-offs in the next four editions.

During those four years, the Gladiators did not feel the need to do anything out-of-the-box to change their fortunes.

And when they finally did — ahead of the ongoing season of the franchise tournament — by sacking Sarfraz as captain to replace him with Rilee Rossouw and by appointing former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson as their head coach in place of his predecessor Moin Khan, it worked wonders.

On Sunday night, the Gladiators confirmed a spot in the play-offs, beating defending champions Lahore Qalandars by six wickets on the back of a match-winning knock by opener Saud Shakeel here at the National Bank Stadium.

In the series of the changes within the Gladiators at the leadership level, Saud was appointed as vice-captain of the side.

While he identifies his role as a medium of communication between local players and a foreign captain, Saud said it wasn’t only the change of the coach and skipper that brought the Gladiators back to good times.

“The improvement in our performances is not the result of bringing in a different captain or a coach,” he said during the post-match press conference.

“It is more about how the mindset and systems have changed throughout the set-up, and I believed it has worked.”

Coming through the ranks as a expert middle-order batter — his position in the Pakistan One-day International and Test teams — Saud was pushed up to the opening position in his debut season in the PSL, and he has used the opportunity well.

The 28-year-old is the fourth-highest run-getter in the tournament so far with 309 runs at an average of more than 44.

The southpaw from Karachi, was said to be frustrated at how he had to wait for too long to be tested in the shortest format. Now that he has been given the chance, Saud said it happened at the right time.

“I believe everything happens at the right time and it is the right time for me to play T20 cricket,” he said.

Against the Qalandars, he batted through the innings for his 88 off 65, and turned up for his team in a match which they needed to win to confirm their place in the playoffs. “It was an important game, when you come this far in the tournament you try not to stretch it for longer,” said Saud.

There were crazy celebrations as the Gladiators’ camp ran into the ground after Mohammad Wasim Jr’s six took them over the line on the last ball.

The celebrations were lead by Gladiators’ longstanding mentor Sir Vivian Richards, showing what it meant to the side.

“We were missing the feeling of playing the playoffs and it was emotional to be back in them,” Saud said.

Stretching it for longer would have brought them up against high-flying Multan Sultans in a virtual knockout fixture.

Set to be played here on Tuesday, now the clash would be about who finishes at the top of the league stage standings.

Multan will be coming into the back on the back of a shocking loss against Islamabad United, who chased down a mammoth 228-run target.

They could manage it in the first place thanks to opener Usman Khan’s second PSL century this season.

The right-hander opener, once a Pakistani player and now on the verge of representing the United Arab Emirates, went unbeaten with 100 off 50 balls.

Against the Gladiators will be his second outing this season in Karachi, where he scored a brilliant century against Karachi Kings.

On what has been a spin-friendly surface in Karachi, Multan will look to make good use of a decent spin attack in leg-spinner Usama Mir and chinaman bowler Faisal Akram.

They will also have the services of all-rounder Khushdil Shah’s left-arm spin at their disposal, but Saud, who is a good player of spin, may once again be the trump card for the Gladiators.

NASEEM FINED FOR BREACH OF CODE

Meanwhile, Islamabad United pace bowler Naseem Shah has been fined 10 percent of match fee for a Level I breach of the code of conduct during his team’s HBL Pakis­tan Super League fixture against Multan Sultans held at the Pindi Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

Right-armer Naseem was charged for violating Article 2.2 of PSL which deals with abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings. Naseem had kicked the stumps after the final ball of the Sultans’ innings.

Meanwhile in a separate incident in the same match, the Sultans were fined for a slow over-rate.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2024