Shinwari shines as Karachi rout Multan

By PPI

March 06, 2019

ABU DHABI: Left-arm bowling was at its best as fast bowler Usman Shinwari and spinner Umer Khan shared seven wickets between them to help Karachi Kings rout Multan Sultans by five wickets in their HBL PSL match here at the Zayed Stadium on Monday night.

Shinwari grabbed 4-15 and Umer 3-22, never allowing Multan to score freely. They managed only 118-7. Karachi reached the target after some difficulty in 19.2 overs to raise their hopes of qualifying for the play-offs.

Only Hammad Azam (30-ball 29 with two boundaries) and Shoaib Malik (a-run-a-ball 26 with two boundaries) offered some resistance to Karachi bowlers. Multan with just four points in nine games are now out of the race for the play-offs. They have won only two matches and lost seven.

Multan’s last game is against Lahore in Karachi.

During their chase, Karachi Kings had lost two early wickets, Colin Munro for 11 and Babar Azam for 12 — both wickets going to young fast bowler Mohammad Ilyas.

But Colin Ingram (31) and LS Livingstone (53 not out off 42 balls) took the score to 82. Ilyas finished with 3-27 off his four overs.

Test specialist Mohammad Abbas (4-1-14-2) gave Karachi a scare with wickets of Ingram and Iftikhar Ahmed in the same over to leave Karachi at 82-4. It became tight when 24 were needed in the last three overs and seven in the last before Livingstone finished the match with a six off the bowling of leg-spinner Irfan Khan.

Livingstone also struck five fours.

Karachi skipper Imad Wasim said his team was in a better position. “We now hope to qualify for the play-offs. We did well to restrict them and then chased down the target,” he added.

Multan skipper Shoaib Malik said they failed to score enough runs. “We never got runs on the board. Although our bowlers did well, we could never put them under pressure because the target was so low,” said Malik.

It was Shinwari who broke the back of Multan’s batting. Shinwari wrecked Multan right from the outset as he bowled Umer Siddiq with the first ball of the second over for five and then had Johnson Charles (seven) with the first of his second over.

James Vince (16) and Malik had taken the score to 44 when Umer bowled Vince with an incoming delivery. Malik was also removed by Umer, who had him caught at the boundary. Umer also had Dan Christian for five as Multan continued to lose wickets.

The win lifted Karachi to fourth position in the six-team table topped by Quetta Gladiators. Karachi have eight points with four wins and as many defeats.

Quetta are top with 12 points through six wins in eight games.

Peshawar are second with ten points in eight matches, having won five matches and lost three.

Karachi Kings won toss

Multan Sultans

†Umar Siddiq b Usman 5

JM Vince b Umer 16

J Charles b Usman 7

*Shoaib Malik c Babar b Umer 26

Hammad Azam lbw b Usman 29

DT Christian c Summers b Umer 5

CJ Green not out 8

Mohammad Irfan b Usman 0