LAHORE: Islamabad United completed a massive eight-wicket rout of Multan Sultans halting their short-lived win march in the fifth match of the Pakistan Super League season five here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday night.
Multan which was riding high with their win over Qalandars yesterday was brought down by Islamabad.
In the presence of a healthy weekend crowd, Islamabad chased the score in 16.4 overs and were relieved to have a win after they were defeated in their first match against Quetta on February 20. The federal capital team got 165 runs for two with 20 balls to spare in their reply to Sultans 164 for eight.
A foreign hand that came from New Zealand for the United made it difficult for Sultans to defend their total. Opening the innings for Islamabad, Luke Ronchi and Colin Munro provided the 92 runs stand their team was looking for. The two played with an average of above 9 and were only separated by Shahid Afridi when Munro was clean bowled after he completed his half century. In his 50, he timed three fours and four sixes while facing 32 balls. His opening partner, Ronchi was then playing at 39 and was joined by Dawid Malan. Ronchi, maintaining the order of bat, smacked Moeen Ali with three fours and a six in the 11th over to reach his 50 and just two runs shy of win he conceded his wicket to Mohammad Ilyas at 74 achieved in 45 balls. He had to his name nine fours and two sixes. Malan with 35 and Colin Ingram (one) were the not out batsmen. Afridi and Ilyas shared one wickets each. Multan Sultans marched to a reasonably healthy score despite having a couple of blows in their innings. As United kept penetrating through Sultans line up, the side of saints maintained their fighting spirit and acquired run when there was an opportunity.
After their win over Lahore Qalandars in their previous match, Sultans were blooming with confidence. Their captain Shan Masood, James Vince and Zeeshan Ashraf provided spine to their total.
Coming in the middle, Zeeshan was the top scorer for his side with 50 runs. He took 28 balls to reach his second T20 half century that came with the help of four hits across the rope and three over it. United pacer Faheem Ashraf applied breaks to Zeeshan’s score.
Before Zeeshan, James Vince bolstered the total with his fighting 42 in 31 balls, laced with seven boundaries including a six. He together with Shan scored 31 runs for the first wicket with the captain getting 21 before heading back to the pavilion.
Moeen Ali (10), Shahid Afridi (11) and Sohail Tanveer (10) were the other batsmen who reached double figures. Rilee Rossuw went for a duck, Khushdil Shah got seven while Mohammad Ilyas and Imran Tahir were the not out batsmen at three runs each.
Amad Butt was the pick of the bowler from United attack. He took the wickets of Vince, Moeen, Rossouw and Sohail. Faheem had two scalps, one of Shan and the other of Zeeshan while Mohammad Musa and Akif Javed shared one wicket each.
Islamabad United earlier, won the toss and elected to field first. United captain Shadab Khan said the Islamabad bowlers had been slightly hampered by the dew factor when bowling second last ball, and admitted there needed to be significant improvements in all departments if Islamabad wanted to get to winning ways.
Shan Masood acknowledged Sultans wished to bowl first, too. They were top of the table following a thumping win over Lahore Qalandars in their last game, and Masood said he hoped they would carry on where they left off on Friday. Sultans made no changes to that winning side.
