Karachi Kings’ disastrous run in the Pakistan Super League 2022 continued on February 14 as they suffered a bitterly painful one-run defeat against Islamabad United to lose their seventh straight league stage fixture.
United’s left-arm pacer Waqas Maqsood made an excellent feast of the final over in the run-chase where he successfully defended the eight runs that Kings required for a victory. He gave away only six runs off his final six deliveries of the match despite facing the prospect of bowling to Kings’ well-set middle-order batters Qasim Akram and Imad Wasim.
Kings messed up the final over horribly as once Maqsood sent Imad back off the third ball, Qasim got to face only two balls of the over, including a wide. He took a single of the other legal ball but never got back on strike. In the end, a run-out off tailender Chris Jordan ended the proceedings for the Kings.
The Kings could easily have suffered a more sizable defeat on the night if not for the Qasim-Imad stand that added 108 runs to their team’s score when they were once reeling at 80/5, aiming to overhaul United’s gigantic 191/7. Earlier on, opening batter Sharjeel Khan had contributed an aggressive 44 at the top.
On a batting day, Maqsood was the obvious stand-out bowling performer. But in a pure game context, even Asif Ali’s two for 27 off three overs left a huge impact.
The first half was an interesting one for United, who didn’t have any of their batters making a big individual score. But healthy contributions right through the line-up allowed them to reach near the 200 mark.
34 off 26 from skipper Shadab Khan was the top score for the innings, where Asif’s 28 off 11 and Faheem Ashraf’s 29* off 10 proved to be impactful cameos.
Kings found it difficult to keep the runs down on another flat batting surface in PSL 2022. Imad, with figures of two for 30, was their best bowler for the night.
Brief scores
Islamabad United 191/7 in 20 overs (Khan 34, Ashraf 29; Wasim 2/30) beat Karachi Kings 190/8 in 20 overs (Wasim 55, Akram 51*; Maqsood 3/34) by 1 run
