Lahore Qalandars vs Peshawar Zalmi at 2:00 pm
Islamabad United vs Multan Sultans at 7:00 pm
KARACHI: Defending champions Karachi Kings thrashed Quetta Gladiators by seven wickets in the opening match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) VI at National Stadium here on Saturday night. Chasing a modest target of 122, Karachi raced home for the loss of three wickets. Joe Clarke laid the foundation of victory after he made 46 runs off 23 balls before being dismissed in the sixth over. Colin Ingram (17 not out) and Mohammad Nabi (30 not out) finished the job. Earlier, Quetta were restricted to 121 as the former champions were all out in the 19th over after Karachi had won the toss and decided to bowl first. The Kings bowlers started off strong by dismissing both openers Sarfaraz Ahmed (07) and Tom Banton (05) early in the game. Saim Ayub, who made his T20 debut, fell in the eighth over, adding only 08 runs to the scoreboard. Chris Gayle, dubbed the ‘T20 superstar’, met his downfall in the ninth over. He scored 39 runs.
Quetta lost wickets at regular intervals with only four players reaching double-digits — in the face of some terrific seam bowling by Karachi, for whom the young Arshad Iqbal (3-16) proved instrumental. Karachi opener Babar Azam, who made 24, became the highest run scorer in the history of Pakistan Super League. Babar surpassed Peshawar Zalmi’s Kamran Akmal’s record on yesterday. Kamran had scored 1,537 runs in 55 innings in PSL since the inception of the tournament. Babar had 1,516 runs from 47 games before the start of PSL’s opener on Friday. The opening batsman scored 24 runs to take his total runs’ tally to 1,540, three more than Kamran’s total runs.