Today match number 13 of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) Season 8 played between Islamabad United and Quetta Gladiators. Islamabad United won the toss and elected to bat first. While batting first Islamabad United lost few early wickets however, later on the great innings of Colin muro, Asif Ali and specially Azam Khan allowed the Islamabad United to put up greatest PSL 8 total on the scoreboard.
Azam Khan was the top scorer from Islamabad United. He scored 97 runs on just 42 ball, with the help of 8 sixes and 9 fours. His strike rate was just above 230, which is amazing. For this amazing performance, the Azam Khan was awarded Player of the match title and trophy.
After Azam Khan, second best scorer, Asif Ali scored 42 runs on 24 balls with the help of 4 sixes and 1 four. Colin Munro also contributed 38 runs on just 22 balls, with the help of 4 sixes and 1 four. Faheem Ashraf was not out on 17 on the end of Islamabad United innings.
On the end of Islamabad United Innings, they had scored total 220 runs. After fall of early wickets, reaching such a big total, was indeed a big achievement for Islamabad United. Specially, the valuable 97 runs from Azam Khan and an amazing knock from him enabled Islamabad United in scoring such a big total.
From Quetta Gladiators bowling side, Muhammad Hasnain and Odean Smith took 2 wickets each. While Naseem Shah and Aimal Khan took 1 wicket each. Iftikhar Ahmad and Muhammad Nawaz were not able to take any wickets.
Quetta Gladiators batting was not as impressive as it needed to be. Right from start Quetta Gladiators started losing wickets. When they reached 26 runs, they had already lost 3 wickets, while they were looking to chease target of 221, which was set by Islamabad United for them.
Top scorer was Muhammad Hafeez with his 48 runs, then Sarfaraz Ahmed with his 41 runs and Iftikhar Ahmed also scored good 39 runs. Other than that there were no significant scores from Quetta Gladiators. Whole team got out after scoring just 157 runs in 19.1 overs.
From Islamabad United Fazalhaq Farooqi and Hassan Ali took 3 wickets each. Abrar Ahmed and Shadab Khan took 2 wickets each. Abrar Ahmed was the most economical bowler from the lot, he gave just 21 runs in his 4 overs.
This was a very comfortable victory for the Islamabad United. Also one noticeable thing was, after few wickets of Quetta Gladiators fell, I felt the lack of intent in Quetta Gladiators, as instead of hitting big, they just kept rotating the strike instead of hitting big. Which put lots of unnecessary pressure on tailenders in the final few overs. Hence, Islamabad United won the match 13 of PSL 8 against Quetta Gladiators by 63 runs.
Twenty-four more matches of PSL 8 are still remaining, so for more details about the schedule, buying tickets online and watching cricket online from Pakistan checkout following links.