Babar Azam 90 helps Karachi Kings canter to victory
Kings' win made it nine victories in nine for chasing teams in PSL 2021
Kings' win made it nine victories in nine for chasing teams in PSL 2021
Scorer: Ranjith P | Commentator: @PeterDellaPenna
That's it from this match. Coverage is about to get underway for the second half of today's doubleheader between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi with Saurabh Somani kicking off commentary shortly. For Danyal Rasool and the scoring team, I'm Peter Della Penna. Take care!
Winning captain Imad Wasim: "It was tough the last defeat but we knew we could come back. Credit goes to the bowlers first. The way we finished at the end was fantastic. I think we saved almost 15-20 runs at the death. Apart from that, our fielding was very poor so we'll see how it goes. [On Amir's maiden over] I always believe he is the best bowler in the world, not just in Pakistan. Even on flat tracks, he's bowling so well. I always back him. He's bowling so well. I think he's the best bowler in the world I've played with. I think he's executing it very nicely. I hope we get more wickets early on up front and we hope to do that next game. [On Joe Clarke] I call him 'Box-Office'. He's box-office basically. He just goes in and plays shots, not just slogs, but he's a gun player. He's proving that he's a very good young player."
Player of the Match is Babar Azam.
So now the Kings create a four-way tie at the top of the PSL table on four points alongside Islamabad United, Peshawar Zalmi and Lahore Qalandars. Kings have the best net run rate by far though. This is the most consecutive winning chases to start a PSL tournament, now at nine games in a row. However, the longest streak in PSL history stretched 14 games of teams chasing successfully during the 2019 season from match 12 to match 25 (that stat is courtesy of Matt Roller on the ESPNcricinfo staff).
Joe Clarke: "There have been good wickets around the 10 games that have been played. The ball gets a little bit softer and it comes on a touch slower but overall good wickets. When [Wasim Akram] speaks, people listen. The second 10 [innings in the field] was superb. We managed to bring it back really well. We know with our batting depth, we can chase anything so it was nice to get the win. I've been lucky in the two games I've batted to spend a bit of time with Babar. He makes the game look easy and next time I have to be out there at the end with him."
5.41 pm Sultans will rue their dreadful finish to the first innings. The scorecard will show a seven-wicket win with superb knocks in the chase by Babar Azam and Joe Clarke, but really it was magnificent bowling in the latter half of the first innings that set up victory for the Kings. Sultans looked like they were going to sail past 200 but Arshad Iqbal's 12th over taking Rizwan's wicket and conceding just two runs sparked a dramatic turnaround. Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir and Waqas Maqsood all played their part in tying down runs as well to keep the Sultans under 200 and set up a fairly stress-free chase.
Sakhi Ahmad : "Don't blame the toss! They are losing because of poor performance, "
14 from 12 required. Sohail for the 19th.
Kings' win made it nine victories in nine for chasing teams in PSL 2021