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Lewis Gregory’s all-round show takes Islamabad home in a thrilling finish against Multan

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England all-rounder Lewis Gregory shone with both bat and ball to get Islamabad United off to a winning start to their Pakistan Super League 2021 campaign at National Stadium, Karachi. Gregory scored a brilliant 49 off 31 balls which included an 18 run over off Sohail Tanvir in the penultimate over of the innings when United required 20 off two overs with seven wickets down. The Somerset player hit six fours and a huge six in his innings. 

Gregory walked into bat in a precarious situation with Islamabad struggling at 74-5 and losing another wicket in the next two runs. He then stitched together a 30 ball 43 run stand with Faheem Ashraf to take the game close. Once Faheem got out with United still needing 34 from 24 balls. Among those 34, Gregory scored 31, taking the responsibility to take his team home being the senior partner at the crease. 

Earlier in the evening, Islamabad skipper Shadab Khan won the toss and sent Multan to bat. Multan captain Mohammad Rizwan took upon the challenge scoring a beautifully compiled 71 off 53 balls. Although Rizwan got to his fifty in just 31 balls, he got slower as the time passed and so did the scoring rate of the entire Multan side.  While they were 104/3 at the end of  13 overs, it was disappointing for the team to get only 46 runs in the next 42 balls. Apart from Rizwan, no other batsman could get going. 

Mohammad Wasim Jr. was the highest wicket-taker for the United, taking three wickets on debut. 

Coming to chase tricky 151 to win, the United had a good start scoring 30 in just 3.3 overs before the first wicket went down. After that, 40-year-old Shahid Afridi took two wickets and executed a runout to push United to 74-6.  

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