Islamabad United defeated Multan Sultans by 8 wickets in the fifth match of the PSL fifth edition played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday.
Islamabad United chased the 165-run target in 16.4 overs with a loss of two wickets. Islamabad United’s Luke Ronchi (74 in 45) and Colin Munro (50 in 35) gave a solid base to their squad to achieve the target.
Earlier, Islamabad United won the toss and elected to field first.
Multan Sultans’ Zeeshan Ashraf (50 in 29) and James Vince (41 in 31) helped the team to set a target of 164 on board. United’s Amad Butt took 4 and Faheem Ashraf 2 wickets. Muhammad Musa and Akif Javed took one wicket each.
It was another disappointing day for the Pakistan Super League organisers as Gaddafi remained partially filled for second consecutive day of the event when Islamabad United meet Multan Sultans Saturday.
The mismanagement and sufferings of the fans at the hands of security officials have already squeezed the limited fanbase of the cricket who usually thronged Gaddafi Stadium at the previous occasions but for one time and decided against it come again as the events that should have been supposed to be fun and enjoyment mostly ended in depression and fatigue for the fans.
The PCB never considered marketing the PSL brand properly and lack of hype and enthusiasm in the air has given this shabby look of the stadium. Last night also ugly scenes were witnessed and there is also a power struggle between franchises, PCB, security and administration which means some fights that resulted in humiliation of PCB’s own officials denied entry to the stadium for long before the start of the match.
In the field, the pitched at the Gaddafi Stadium are not suitable for a fiery cricket and that also keeping the spectators from the ground.
However, Sultans, who defeated Qalandars a night earlier, played smart cricket after Islamabad United captain Shadab Khan won the toss and put them into bat first. Sultans were never looked in sight of a big total but Zeeshan Ashraf hit a brilliant and passionate half century off just 28 balls and James Vince scored a handy 42 off 31 balls as Sultans reached 164-8 in allotted overs. Zeeshan hit three sixes and four boundaries in his innings.
Amad Butt put the disappointment of poor bowling against Quetta in the tournament opener behind him and finished as the best bowler for United taking four wickets for 27 runs. Faheem took 2-34 while M Musa and Akif Javed took one wicket each for 24 and 35 runs, respectively.
Shadab Khan remained wicketless for his three costly overs in which he conceded 29 runs.