Karachi Kings once again imploded in their batting department to lose their fifth match in a row on Sunday, 6 February. The Babar Azam-led team has had a horror run in the tournament so far, with nothing going their way at the moment.
Things run a similar line on Sunday as Babar Azam and co failed to deliver with the bat and managed to lose 8 wickets inside the first 15 overs for just 83 runs. The pacers clean bowled two out of the top four batsmen and the rest of the work was done by the magical Shadab Khan who once again took four wickets in a game. This took his tally to 14 in this season’s Pakistan Super League. He is on a rampage at the moment, picking up 5, 4, 4 back on the trot.
A late attack by Mohammad Nabi lessened the humiliation but Karachi still lost the game by 42 runs while chasing 178.
Earlier in the day Islamabad United went around their usual ways, hacking everything in sight. Inside the powerplay, Islamabad have been a force to reckon with, especially due to the exceptional ball hitting ability of Paul Sterling and Alex Hales.
Both men took on pace bowling in the powerplay overs and smashed Usman Shinwari and Chris Jordan all around the park. Poor lines from the Karachi bowlers did not help either as the duo stayed true to their record making it yet another successful outing in the powerplay for Islamabad.
The breakthrough came in the 8th over, as Hales did not get enough bat on the long hop and deposited it straight to mid wicket in the hands of Lewis Gregory. Sterling soon followed suit against another long hop, this time from Mohammad Nabi, which slightly kept low to crash into his stumps.
Things were brought in control once again by Colin Munro and Shadab Khan who put on a partnership of 55 off 37 balls in the middle overs. However, it was captain Babar Azam who took the charge and dismissed both of them with two stunning catches to turn the tide of the game once again. Karachi had the game in their hand when they dismissed Munro, but some late attack in the final two overs once again shifted the momentum towards Islamabad as they put up 177/6 in their 20 overs.
Shadab Khan was declared man of the match for his incredible all round showing.