MULTAN: A swashbuckling century by Rilee Rossouw backed by fine bowling from pacer Bilawal Bhatti and Imran Tahir guided Multan Sultans to a fantastic victory over defending champions Quetta Gladaitors by 30 runs in a high-scoring match at the packed to capacity Multan Stadium here on Saturday.

Multan Sultans now lead the points table with eight points in the 5th HBL Pakistan Super League.

Chasing a daunting winning target of 200, the Gladiators ought back valiantly - led by seasoned campaigner Shane Watson who blasted a brilliant 80 - but lost steam and ended up at 169 for seven in 20 overs. Watson, who look off form in the last four matches of this league, fired on all cylinders to slam seven sixes and as many boundaries in his fabulous knock.

He partnered fellow opener Jason Roy (30 in 27 balls, six fours) in a thrilling display of hitting as Gladiators reached the 50-run mark in just 5.4 overs. At 54, though, Roy departed caught by Moeen Ali at the boundary line off Bilawal. But Watson’s carried on and completed his 50 off just 27 balls with four sixes and five boundaries.

At 98, Quetta lost Ahsan Ali (14) who was caught by Vince off Khushdil Shah. That was followed with two quick dismissals by South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir that rocked the Quetta innings. Imran had Azam Khan caught by a substitute for just six at the total of 122 in 13.5 overs. And when he took the prized scalp of Watson, caught by Moeen Ali,, the writing was pretty much on the wall for the Gladiators.

Watson fell when the score was 139-4 in 15.4 overs. Anwar Ali came in ahead of skipper Sarfraz Ahmed in a bid to do some lusty hitting along with Ben Cutting who had played a match-winning cameo against the Islamabad United in the last match. But when Cutting was removed quickly for 12, caught by Shan off Bilawal at the total of 156 in 17.3 overs, all hopes of a Gladiators victory were dashed. Bilawal Bhatti finished with three for 26 while Imran conceded 27 runs for his two wickets.

Earlier, electing to bat first, Multan Sultans were off to a horrible start and lost openers Zeeshan Ashraf (8), James Vince (29, six fours) and Thursday’s hero Moeen Ali (6) to totter at 48-3 in 7.5 overs. It was from here that Rossouw started his onslaught. In a breath-taking 139-run stand off just 64 balls with skipper Shan Masood, he not only rescued the innings but also put Sultans in a winning position.

But Rossouw and Shan took the total to 187 before Shan, just four runs behind to his second consecutive fifty was caught by Azam Khan off paceman Muhammad Hasnain. Rossouw, at the other end, mauled the Gladiators. He took 19 runs off Ben Cutting in the 15th over with four boundaries and continued at a brisk rate by hitting all Quetta bowlers to all parts of the ground and beyond.

While Sultans had scored just 65 runs for the loss of three wickets in first 10 overs, they collected an amazing 134 in the remaining quota of 10 overs while losing just two wickets to end the innings at 199 for five in 20 overs.

Rossouw became second centurion of this fifth edition of the league after Kamran Akmal who had also scored (101), also against the Gladiators in Karachi. However, Rossouw was more aggressive as he smashed six towering sixes and ten boundaries and consumed just 44 balls for his hundred. Kamran had scored his 101 off 55 balls.

Barring left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz (1-16) all Gladiators bowlers including Naseem Shah (1-45), Sohail Khan (1-45), Cutting (1-42) , Muhammad Hasnain (1-38), looked helpless against Rossouw and Shan.

Current standings

(Tabulated under played, won, lost, tied, no-result, points, net run-run-rate):

Multan Sultans 5 4 1 0 0 8 +1.415

Quetta Gladiators 5 3 2 0 0 6 -0.168

Islamabad United 5 2 2 0 1 5 +0.145

Peshawar Zalmi 5 2 2 0 1 5 -0.317

Karachi Kings 3 1 2 0 0 2 -0.868

Lahore Qalandars 3 0 3 0 1 0 -1.136

Scoreboard

MULTAN SULTANS:

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

Zeeshan Ashraf c Nawaz b Naseem 8 11 1 0 72.72

J.M. Vince c Azam b Nawaz 29 24 6 0 120.83

Shan Masood c Azam b Hasnain 46 32 6 0 143.75

Moeen Ali b Cutting 6 7 1 0 85.71

R.R. Rossouw not out 100 44 10 5 227.27

Khushdil Shah c Anwar b Sohail 1 2 0 0 50.00

Sohail Tanvir not out 1 1 0 0 100.00

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-6, NB-1) 8 - - - -

TOTAL (for five wkts, 20 overs) 199 - - - -

FALL OF WKTS: 1-23 (Zeeshan, 3.5 ov), 2-40 (Vince, 6.2 ov), 3-48 (Moeen, 7.5 ov), 4-187 (Shan, 18.3 ov), 5-196 (Khushdil, 19.3 ov).

DID NOT BAT: Bilawal Bhatti, Mohammad Ilyas, Mohammad Irfan, Imran Tahir.

BOWLING: Mohammad Nawaz 3-0-16-1; Naseem Shah 4-0-45-1; Sohail Khan 4-0-45-1; Mohammad Hasnain 4-0-38-1; Cutting 4-0-42-1; Anwar Ali 1-0-12-0.

QUETTA GLADIATORS:

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

J.J. Roy c Moeen b Bilawal 30 27 6 0 111.121

S.R. Watson c Moeen b Imran 80 41 7 7 195.12

Ahsan Ali c Vince b Khushdil 14 16 1 0 87.50

Azam Khan c sub b Imran 6 6 1 0 100.00

B.C.J. Cutting c Shan b Bilawal 12 12 2 0 100.00

Anwar Ali c sub b Bilawal 14 8 1 1 175.00

Sohail Khan run out 1 2 0 0 50.00

Mohammad Nawaz not out 5 6 0 0 83.33

Sarfraz Ahmed not out 3 4 0 0 75.00

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-12, NB-1) 4 - - - -

TOTAL (for seven wkts, 20 overs) 169 - - - -

FALL OF WKTS: 1-57 (Roy, 6.4 ov), 2-98 (Ahsan (11.3 ov), 3-122 (Azam, 13.5 ov), 4-139 (Watson, 15.4 ov), 5-156 (Cutting, 17.3 ov), 6-160 (Anwar, 17.6 ov), 7-163 (Sohail, 18.4 ov).

DID NOT BAT: Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah.

BOWLING: Mohammad Irfan 4-0-49-0 (1nb); Mohammad Ilyas 3-0-37-0; Sohail Tanvir 4-0-27-0; Bilawal Bhatti 4-0-26-3 (1w); Imran Tahir 4-0-27-2; Khushdil Shah 1-0-1-1.

RESULT: Multan Sultans won by 30 runs.

UMPIRES: Asif Yaqoob (Pakistan) and Faisal Afridi (Pakistan).

TV UMPIRE: Rashid Riaz (Pakistan).

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Javed Malik (Pakistan).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Rilee Rossouw (Multan Sultans).

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2020