Daily Times

LAHORE: Luke Ronchi’s dazzling 74-run knock helped Islamabad United defeat Multan Sultans by eight wickets in their HBL Pakistan Super League5 match at Gaddafi Stadium here on Saturday evening. Chasing a target of 165, Islamabad raced home comfortably with 20 balls to spare. Their two losses were Colin Munro (50 off 32), who was bowled out by Shahid Afridi, and player of the match Ronchi, who stumbled only in the 17th over after taking his side to just runs away from victory with his brilliant 45-ball innings. Earlier, after being sent in to bat, Multan finished with a score of 164-8 at the end of their allotted 20 overs. Amad Butt was the pick of the bowlers for Islamabad with four scalps. The Shan Masood-led team had started off their batting strong, amassing 31 runs at the end of five overs without any losses. In the sixth over, however, skipper Shan was caught by Muhammad Musa off Faheem Ashraf. The 10th over brought more trouble for Multan, with Amad dismissing both Moeen Ali and Rilee Rossouw. Amad went on to also claim the wickets of JM Vince and Sohail Tanvir. Though Zeeshan Ashraf did revive Multan a bit with his half-century but it went in vain. Two-time champions Islamabad lost the opening match of the tournament to defending champions Quetta Gladiators, while the Multan, who were in action Friday night, handed Lahore Qalandars a five-wicket defeat to gain two precious points.

Brief scores:

Islamabad United 165 for 2 (Luke Ronchi 74, Colin Munro 50) beat Multan Sultans 164 for 8 (Zeehan Ashraf 50, Amad Butt 4-27)