Babar Azam punishes wayward Multan as Karachi continue ‘bat second win match’ streak in PSL 6

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam finally hit form after a long lull period science the end of Pakistan’s England tour, scoring a match-winning unbeaten 91 to take his side Karachi Kings past Multan Sultans. Chasing a tough target of 196, Babar faced early hiccups as he wasn’t able to time the ball properly. Both Babar and his partner were so much cramped for room in the first two overs, that they could only score seven runs from it, with Sohail khan’s out-swinging deliveries going past Babar’s bat quite often. 

However luck was by the side of the openers as in the third over, Sohail was taken for 18 runs, even without bowling one bad ball as edges flew past here and there giving momentum to the Karachi batsmen. Once they had the momentum, there was no looking back for Babar. Sharejeel though was caught by skipper Mohammad Rizwan off youngster Shahnawaz Dhani in the fifth over. But even after that Babar continued his march towards the total, ably supported by Kings’ foreign import Joe Clarke. The two added 97 for the third wicket, taking the Karachi total to 153 in just the 15th over, killing the game for the Sultans to even try and make a comeback. 

Colin Ingram the next man in for Kings didn’t have a great time at the crease as he was caught by Dhani off Sohail Khan for just six runs. The formalities were then completed by Babar and Afghan Mohammad Nabi, completing the second win for Karachi in three games. Babar Azam was awarded Man of the Match for his performance.

The Karachi batsmen didn’t give any chance to the Multan fielders but the bowling from the Sultans was average, to say the least. When they had got the two openers in a grip at the start of the chase, Rizwan and the bowlers shouldn’t have let them go at any cost. In the middle overs too, experienced Shahid Afridi was very experience and so was Khushdil Shah the part-time left-arm spinner. Between them, they gave away 60 runs in five overs without even taking a single wicket. The pacers too were wayward in their approach, as they kept bowling wither too short or too full for Babar to exploit them. Usman’s Qadir approach towards googly was also deciphered well by the Kings and it resulted in a sad performance overall from the Sultans’ bowler. 

Earlier in the day, Sultans couldn’t capitalise on the start given by their top-order batsmen. Put in to bat after losing the toss, Rizwan and Chris Lynn started the innings confidently for Multan. The two of them added 53 for the opening stand in just 4.1 overs. Lynn fell down, still, the scoring rate continued to soar as Rizwan added another 70 runs with James Vince, taking the team total to 123 in just 11 overs. 

But as Rizwan and Vince fell in quick succession, the Sultans lost the plot and could manage to score only 72 runs in the last 50 balls. Arshad Iqbal was once again the pick of the bowlers for Kings, taking two wickets for 36 runs. 

With this win at the National Stadium in Karachi, the streak of ‘team winning the toss, batting second and winning the game’ has remained intact even after nine games into the tournament. While Karachi have now moved up to the top of the table with four points from three games. Multan though suffered their third defeat in four games and are at second last position in the table.