SHARJAH: Karachi Kings defeated defending champions Islamabad United by 44 runs in the eliminator of the Pakistan Super League at Sharjah International Stadium here on Wednesday night. With the victory, Karachi are now set to face-off against Peshawar Zalmi on Friday in the knockout match for a place in the final against Quetta Gladiators. Paceman Mohammad Amir (3-7) and spinners Imad Wasim (3-18) and Usama Mir (3-24) sent Islamabad crashing to 82 all out in 15.2 overs as Karachi defended 126, the lowest total in Pakistan Super League history. Opener Asif Ali played a lone hand of 39 as stalwarts like Brad Haddin (nought), Misbahu -Haq (13) and Shane Watson (eight) all failed.
Islamabad had an upper hand in the match after they won the toss and opted to bowl first. Karachi batting once against failed them and the team could only manage 126 runs in 19.4 overs. Karachi’s batsmen had also struggled after left-arm paceman Rumman Raees returned figures of 4-25 in his four overs. Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik top-scored with 25 each in the play-off clash. “The bounce was on the low side,” said man-of-the-match Imad. “I think I like to perform when there is a crunch situation. I planned to bowl short of the length. If you can’t take wickets, you can’t win games. Our plan was to get wickets since we had a low score to defend.” Meanwhile, losing captain Misbah said the team failed as a batting unit after their bowlers had put up a good show. “I think bowlers did very well to restrict them to 126,” said Misbah. “We didn’t bat well. We should have chased that target. We lost early wickets, pressure started building and then they bowled well.”
Karachi captain Kumar Sangakkara was a happy man and said the team had finally started to play as a unit. “We were quite short on runs but guys bowled really well, especially Imad and Usama,” he said. “The ball was staying low. Imad bowled really well. The guys are starting to play like a team. It’s a tough game to play T20 format but that is why people love watching it.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday decided to still stage the final in Lahore despite last week’s two bomb blasts which killed 22 people and left over 100 injured. However, five Quetta players — Kevin Pietersen, Luke Wright, Rilee Rossouw, Tymal Mills and Nathan McCullum – have refused to go to Pakistan over security fears. The PCB insists they would be replaced by some other foreign players. Lahore has been the scene of violence affecting cricketers before. In 2009, Sri Lanka’s team bus was attacked by gunmen who killed six policemen. Several of the Sri Lanka team and staff were injured and the bloodshed turned Pakistan into a ‘no-go zone’ as far as international teams were involved.