KARACHI: For the second time in four days since the HBL Pakistan Super League 2020 started, Quetta Gladiators owed Azam Khan huge debt after the youngster produced another wonderful innings as the holders completed a resounding win over Karachi Kings here at the National Stadium on Sunday.

Playing their third fixture in the short span, Quetta swiftly returned to winning ways — a day after Peshawar Zalmi had humbled them — on a pitch where chasing any total over 150-plus was never going to be easy. But Azam, the burly 21-year-old son of Quetta head coach Moin Khan, was oozing with confidence after Ahmed Shehzad holed out in the deep to leave his team in considerable bother at 55-3 at the start of the ninth over.

Azam — who had also starred in the win against Islamabad United on the opening night last Thursday with 59 — joined his captain, Sarfraz Ahmed, and the pair remained inseparable for 54 deliveries to take the game away from Karachi Kings. Their partnership of 85 was not only the game-changing clincher but also played a key role in extending Quetta’s run of wins against these rivals to six from nine fixtures in the PSL.

Azam, the deserving recipient of the $4,500 man-of-the-match award, batted with aplomb and panache with the pick of those powerful strokes being the effortless six he launched against Mohammad Amir over the long off boundary. The end though was a bit of anti-climax when a misunderstanding with the skipper resulted in the third run-out dismissal of the innings as Azam trudged off after making 46 off 30 balls (four fours and two sixes).

Sarfraz headed off undefeated on a 28-ball 37, which featured a huge six off seamer Arshad Iqbal and two fours, while Anwar Ali — the replacement for the banned Umar Akmal — finished off Karachi with a six off Chris Jordan with six deliveries to spare as Quetta achieved a plus net run-rate.

Jordan later reckoned the pitch probably cost his side in the end as Quetta sealed their second win at 157-5.

“I thought it [the pitch] played a bit slow and the ball wasn’t coming onto the bat as much we were hoping at the start,” Jordan said during the post-match presser. “That’s why most of our batters got decent starts but they all fell in trying to score quick runs. In the end were probably 10-15 runs short since the pitch was getting a bit slower and chasing extra those runs would be quite a challenge.”

In the first instance of team winning the toss and opting to bat in this PSL edition, Karachi Kings were not really allowed to take off. Their innings was a tale of struggles with just four batsmen surpassing 20 but none of them crossed the figure of 30.

Babar Azam — world’s top-ranked batsman in the shortest format — started off with five boundaries in the opening five overs but even he got bogged down against the intelligent bowling from the champions.

There was drama upfront during the powerplay when Naseem Shah — playing his first PSL fixture — was convinced that Babar, then on 25, had nicked a catch behind to Sarfraz Ahmed but umpire Faisal Afridi refused the vociferous appeal. Sarfraz was left in no doubt in asking for the Decision Review System (DRS) to be employed.

But the whole process took a remarkable five minutes only for a glitch with the ultra-edge technology reprieved Babar after countless replays from different angles were inconclusive. Heated discussions ensued then between Sarfraz and the umpires until the matter was finally resolved when it was decided that Quetta would retain their DRS under clause 3.6.8 of the playing conditions.

Sarfraz later acknowledged the ‘loopholes’ in the technology and pointed out the failure of it can be a misleading factor because he felt Babar was out.

“Look how technology functions is not our domain, and if it is there for specific reasons then the possibility of it malfunctioning also coexists. It was one of these times where we had to go by the ruling because this is not the first case [of technical failure],” Sarfraz explained afterwards.

“However, I felt Babar had nicked the ball and being in pole position, I was convinced he had. Fortunately it didn’t cause much damage because we were against one of the best batsmen currently playing on the international stage.”

But the luck deserted Babar (26 off 23 balls) in the next over when an express delivery from England left-armer Tymal Mills was edged onto the stumps. Sharjeel Khan, taking 32 minutes to open his account, perished for a 12-ball six in the eighth over when slapped a simple return catch to spinner Mohammad Nawaz.

The onus was then shifted to Alex Hales — who missed out Friday’s game owing to a stomach disorder — and Cameron Delport to accelerate the sluggish scoring rate with left-handed Delport striking two fours and a six but his 12-ball innings of 22 was terminated by a good catch in the Nawaz off Sohail Khan.

Karachi Kings lost Chadwick Walton soon after when Mohammad Hasnain broke the stumps on his follow through. Hasnain then sent back Hales, the top scorer with a 27-ball 29 (one six and one four), when the discarded England right-hander slashed a catch down the throat of substitute Abdul Nasir at third man.

At that point it looked that Karachi might find it hard to cross the 140-mark but Iftikhar Ahmed, Chris Jordan and Umaid Asif combined to score 31 runs from the final two overs, delivered by Mills and Hasnain who between them claimed five wickets.

Iftikhar, who for inexplicable reasons was once again sent in late, blasted an 18-ball 25 (two fours and one six).

The game, however, will be remembered for the run-outs and they were five here — two for Karachi and three for Quetta — as the competition headed for a two-day break.

Scoreboard

KARACHI KINGS

Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Babar Azam b Mills 26 23 5 0 113.04

Sharjeel Khan c and b Nawaz 6 12 0 0 50.00

A.D. Hales c sub (A. Nasir) b Hasnain 29 27 1 1 107.40

C.S. Delport c Nawaz b Sohail 22 12 2 1 183.33

C.A.K. Walton run out 1 4 0 0 25.00

Iftikhar Ahmed c Naseem b Hasnain 25 18 2 1 138.88

Imad Wasim run out 8 10 1 0 80.00

C.J. Jordan c and b Mills 14 9 1 1 155.55

Umaid Asif b Hasnain 9 4 2 0 225.00

Mohammad Amir not out 0 1 0 0

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-12, W-2) 16

TOTAL (for nine wkts, 20 overs) 156

FALL OF WKTS: 1-31 (Babar, 4.4 ov), 2-47 (Sharjeel, 7.3 ov), 3-76 (Delport, 10.4 ov), 4-86 (Walton, 11.6 ov), 5-96 (Hales, 13.4 ov), 6-112 (Imad, 16.4 ov), 7-136 (Jordan, 18.4 ov), 8-149 (Umaid, 19.3 ov), 9-156 (Iftikhar, 19.6 ov).

DID NOT BAT: Arshad Iqbal.

BOWLING: Sohail Khan 4-0-24-1; Naseem Shah 4-0-23-0 (1w); Mills 4-0-30-2; Mohammad Hasnain 4-0-33-3 (1w); Anwar Ali 2-0-19-0; Mohammad Nawaz 2-0-13-1.

QUETTA GLADIATORS

Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

J.J. Roy run out 17 20 1 0 85.00

S.R. Watson run out 27 20 2 2 135.00

Ahmed Shehzad c Jordan b Imad 11 9 1 0 122.22

Sarfraz Ahmed not out 37 28 2 1 132.14

Azam Khan run out 46 30 4 2 153.33

Mohammad Nawaz c Hales b Jordan 1 3 0 0 33.33

Anwar Ali not out 12 4 1 1 300.00

Extras (b-1, lb-4, w-1) 6

Total (for five wkts, 19 overs) 157

FALL OF WKTS: 1-41 (Watson, 5.5 ov), 2-54 (Roy, 7.5 ov), 3-55 (Shehzad, 8.1 ov), 4-140 (Azam, 17.1 ov), 5-144 (Nawaz, 18.1 ov).

DID NOT BAT: Sohail Khan, T.S. Mills, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah.

BOWLING: Imad Wasim 4-0-20-1; Mohammad Amir 4-0-30-0; Umaid Asif 3-0-25-0 (1w); Jordan 4-0-34-1; Arshad Iqbal 4-0-43-0.

RESULT: Quetta Gladiators won by five wickets.

UMPIRES: Faisal Afridi (Pakistan) and R.K. Illingworth (England).

TV UMPIRE: Asif Yaqoob (Pakistan).

MATCH REFEREE: R.S. Mahanama (Sri Lanka).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Azam Khan.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2020