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Alright. Multan Sultans, three out of three and sit tight at the top of the table with 6 points and Quetta Gladiators spoiled a wonderful opportunity to bring down Sultans tonight but it was a humdinger of a game in the end which had all the recipe of a thriller of a contest. We have plenty of games coming up tomorrow, do stick around and on behalf of my friend, Pratyush Rohra, this is Pradeep Somashekar signing off for the night. Good night, take care and stay safe!
Mohammad Rizwan (winning captain, Multan Sultans): We assessed the conditions well, how our batting is lined up and like the way it was gripping initially, gave the ball to Khushdil initially but he's having a brilliant time for himself, doesn't matter it's with the bat, ball or in the field, he's been sensational for us. We thought, we wanted to get 160 or something, if you do well in all departments, doesn't matter whether you bat first or second, the team that does well in all three departments is going to win the game. In our meeting we always discuss that the champion teams always do well in all three departments and we want to continue to do that.
Sarfaraz Ahmed (losing captain, Quetta Gladiators): I think we lost our way when Iftikhar Ahmed got out and that run-out completely changed the complexion of the game for us. We were going good, our plan was to keep wickets right till the end and chase this down but Iftikhar got out at the wrong time for us. The bowling is good for us so far in this season, we just need to work on our fielding a bit better.
Time for the presentations!
Shan Masood, the deserved Player of the match has been adjudged for his splendid 88 off 58 balls!
Masood: I think what matters is mental space and I'm in a pretty good mental space at the moment. I took a break during the season, came back and played domestic cricket pretty freely. Brought the same template to the PSL and if you get your basics right, it helps you play all three formats and I think I'm very fortunate with that. Today we wanted to Rizwan to bat longer way, we had to take singles and doubles, the ball was gripping, couldn't really go for boundaries, unfortunately we lost Rizwan early. The plan was to get as close to 160 as possible, the last five overs we had the fire power and we backed ourselves with eight wickets in hand, we got a decent target on the board. To defend this target was quite an achievement, I'm lucky to be standing here only because of David Willey, bowled an outstanding death over, he's the one that's won the game for the team. Had to do something, dropping a catch and that too the dangerous Iftikhar's but I'm really proud of the fielders and the bowlers, how they stuck to the plans and defended this target.
David Willey: It was a good pitch and we got a decent score. I just tried to take the pace off and use some deception. That worked quite well, so I went for it. Having a calm head helps in these situations. There was no swing for me. That's my usual threat upfront. (On David's catch) It was a brilliant bit of work out there and thanks to Tim, we got across the line. Winning close games like this sets you up well for the latter part of the competition. We'll be looking to keep the momentum going.
Multan Sultans won the game by 6 runs! Ben Duckett 47(32) | Iftikhar Ahmed 30(13) | Khushdil Shah 4-0-16-3 | Imran Tahir 4-0-24-3 | David Willey 3.5-0-22-3
OH MY! How's that for entertainment, let's take a breather now, shall we? It proved to be a cliff hanger right at the end of the contest, the game kept swinging like a pendulum right after that strategic time-out. Couldn't have asked for a better game of T20 cricket.
Gladiators were in the game all the time but it's the Sultans who held their nerve. Willey concedes just 1 run and removes the dangerous Tanvir but Naseem almost clobbered him for a maximum but Tim David was cool as a cucumber at deep square-leg to take a blinder of a catch.
David Willey was also the man that brought them back in that 18th over, just gave away three runs then asked to defend 8 runs off the final over and he does it splendidly well. Shahnawaz Dahani who bowled just one over up until that penultimate over was asked to bowl that and got clobbered for 15 runs.
Couple of decisions that Rizwan might think back and say, well, could've reversed it but what's done is done and more importantly those things won't count simply because they are on the other side of the game, the winning one. It was Imran Tahir who triggered a mini collapse.
Sends Duckett, the man who was taking the game away from them and then Qureshi right next ball and sends tremor in the Gladiators dug out. Khushdil Shah who's had a sensational night with the ball was brought back to remove the Quetta skipper and Tahir removes Nawaz later on to reduce Quetta from 97-2 to 108-6.
Just when everyone though this game was over, Iftikhar Ahmed clobbers Imran Khan Sr for 24 runs and gets Gladiators right back in it but then Willey who's the man of the moment comes back to remove him. Faulkner and Tanvir take the responsibility to try and score the remaining runs and they almost pulled off before Willey comes back to restrict them at the end!
At the start of the chase, it was Khushdil Shah who sets the tone for Sultans by picking up Will Smeed and Ahsan Ali who were the backbone of this chase. Ben Duckett counter attacks to clobber Dahani for 19 runs and they were cruising up until that 12th over, it all took a U turn from there on and we've witnessed a high class thriller of a contest in the end!
Tim David, you beauty! Blinder of a catch at the ropes! It's all happening isn't it? Just when you think this game is done, it tilts again, it has been a roller coaster ride tonight for both the teams!
19.5 David Willey to Naseem Shah, DRAMA EVERYWHERE! Absolute mayhem! Oh man, it's all happening in Karachi. There was a catch near the boundary ropes. Soft signal is out.He's gone! Multan Sultans clinch a thriller! Back of a length delivery angled into Naseem, he throws the kitchen sink at it and almost gets enough to clear Tim David at deep square leg. It's the tall figure of David that's helped him there. He steadies himself, takes the catch and then loses his balance. He does exceptionally well to throw it back into play and find his footing to get back into play and hold on. A matter of inches. A matter of seconds! Top top work in the deep. Rizwan's delighted and David's feeling the love from him at the moment. What a game!
Naseem Shah c Tim David b David Willey 1 (4b 0x4 0x6)
Lethal blow for Gladiators, Willey bangs it in but Tanvir can't connect and holes out!
19.4 David Willey to Sohail Tanvir, TANVIR HOLES OUT! This one's turning into a nail-biter. Back of a length delivery angled into Tanvir. It was there in his arc but he's failed to time his pull as well as he'd like. Only picks out Rossouw at deep backward square leg and he holds onto that one for dear life. Multan still ahead of the eight-ball. 7 needed in 2.
Tension all round!
19.3 David Willey to Naseem Shah, good length delivery that's a bit leg-lined, Shah clears his front foot and somehow manages to geet this towards deep mid-wicket for a single. More importantly, gets Tanvir back on strike
19.2 David Willey to Naseem Shah, back of a length slower delivery angling across outside off, Shah swings for the fences once again and misses. Another dot ball! Gold dust at this stage.
19.1 David Willey to Naseem Shah, good length slower delivery angling across outside off, Shah throws the kitchen sink at it and gets it off the splice to only find mid-wicket, dot ball
Naseem is on strike!
Can Willey defend 8 off the last 6 balls?
This game is swinging like a pendulum, Tanvir hits a couple of blows and now the Gladiators are right back in it. There was also a huge mix-up which sees the back of Faulkner and it's also proved to be a lethal blow!
19
overs
167/8score
2
1
6
1
1W
4
runs
James Faulkner
18(12)
Sohail Tanvir*
13(7)
Shahnawaz Dahani
0/33
18.6 Shahnawaz Dahani to Sohail Tanvir, FOUR! Back of a length delivery around the off-stump, Tanvir makes some and hammers it away towards deep mid-wicket. The fielder was there but he couldn't get his body behind the ball. Probably should have done better but that was absolutely crunched by Tanvir, which made it a bit difficult for the fielder.
Video
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W Smeed
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National Stadium, Karachi
James Faulkner
Shahnawaz Dahani
