That's it from us from the first of the two PSL matches today. But don't forget to catch the action live as the Multan Sultans face the Peshawar Zalmi soon. It was a wonderful game of cricket first up, and on behalf of Sreshth and Ranjith, it's me Himanshu signing off. Good night, and take care.
Shadab Khan, the winning captain: "We never thought that we shouldn't have batted first after we were 20 for 5. Cricket is a funny game, and we saw the comeback we made today."
Asif Ali, as should have been, is the Player of the Match: "Conditions were difficult and we were under pressure. We wanted to bat deep, and that's what I told my partner [Ifthikar] too."
And Sampath from the stats team has this nugget: Just the seventh time in T20 history that a team has won despite their top five batters collectively scoring less than 20 runs. Only the Mumbai Indians and the Islamabad United have done it in franchise leagues.
Baig : "Excellent come back by IU and excellent ball by ball commentary.... " --- Our pleasure, Baig.
fatima: "unbelievable! take a bows united , take a bow captain!! for making this impossible to possible. What a turnaround!!"
Here's Sohail Akhtar after the loss: "Credit to their bowlers Shadab and Fawad. We need to take responsibility for such matches. We conceded 15-20 extra runs, and then the middle order didn't click for us. We played well, but have got a blow now. Nothing can be worse, and we hope we can only get better."
8.50pm What a sensational comeback by Islamabad United here. They were 20 for 5 with the bat, and posted 152. Then the Qalandars were 86 for 2, and they crumbled to 124 courtesy of the United bowlers. Huge credit to Asif and Ifthikar, and then Musa, Fawad and Shadab to pull it United's way.
Haris Rauf c Iftikhar Ahmed b Ali Khan 17 (11b 0x4 2x6) SR: 154.54
30 needed from 12. Fancy a late drama, anyone?
END OF OVER:18 | 14 Runs | LQ: 123/9 (30 runs required from 12 balls, RR: 6.83, RRR: 15.00)
- Ahmed Daniyal6 (8b)
- Haris Rauf17 (10b)
- Mohammad Wasim3-0-38-0
- Fawad Ahmed4-0-27-2
Shadab has a word with Wasim now
Wasim is back
Haris afridi: "Man of the match himanshu" --- I'll take that.
END OF OVER:17 | 5 Runs | LQ: 109/9 (44 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 6.41, RRR: 14.66)
- Haris Rauf4 (5b)
- Ahmed Daniyal5 (7b)
- Fawad Ahmed4-0-27-2
- Shadab Khan4-0-14-2