PSL Match Result: Multan Sultans Beat Islamabad United By 5 Wickets On Tricky Pitch

PSL Match Result: Multan Sultans beat Islamabad United by five wickets in Match No.5 of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) played at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. The Mohammad Rizwan-led side has registered two wins in a row to start their campaign on a positive note.

Although Islamabad United pacer Naseem Shah removed Dawid Malan for a nought at the early stage of Multan’s 145-run chase, a 71-run stand between skipper Mohammad Rizwan (43 runs of 33 balls) and Reeza Hendricks (58 off 46 )was imperious for the hosts.

Rizwan lived up to his billing of being the aggressor in the field-restricted overs, taking on the new-ball pair of Naseem and Faheem Ashraf to the ropes. Young Ubaid Shah was welcomed with a boundary over square leg and a maximum followed near the same region by the Multan Sultans captain.

Reeza was a mere spectator from the other end until he found the breakthrough with back-to-back boundaries off Tymal Mills’ bowling in the 10th over. It was just before Rizwan was pinned in front of the stumps for leg before wicket by his counterpart Shadab Khan.

Runs dried up following Rizwan’s departure but Reeza broke the deadlock with a six and a couple of fours in the 17th over bowled by Shadab Khan over, which was yielded for 18 runs. Tymal Mills got better of Reeza in the very next over but the dismissal wasn’t capitalised by Islamabad after Iftikhar Ahmed smashed a six over the cow corner to pull down the asking rate to 6.5 runs per over.

With a few dot balls along with the dismissal of Khushdil Shah, Islamabad kept their chances of pulling of a humdinger. However, quick running by Dawid Willey and Iftikhar defied those plans as Multan completed the chase on the penultimate ball.

Earlier in the match, Agha Salman (52 off 43 balls) and Jordan Cox (41 off 28 balls) played some vital knocks for Islamabad to reach a respectable score even though Mohammad Ali (3 for 19) and Abbas Afridi (3 for 33) did the chunk of damage for Multan with the ball. Islamabad was bowled out for 144/10 in the first innings.