Dubai: Twenty20 is a format where a team’s fortunes can suddenly change ever so quickly. Friday night was a case in point when Islamabad United emerged as a strong contender for the title with an emphatic 26-run win over defending champions Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League.
It was their fourth successive win in the tournament and a delighted team skipper Misbah ul Haq said: “I think overall, everything is going along well. Especially the batsmen are giving us good starts and we are a decent bowling team too. At the moment everything is working well. Peshawar Zalmi had nine or 10 right handers in their team and so our left-arm spinners had the advantage. Zafar Gohar (left-arm spinner) is the one who turns the ball and he did well today. Having him in the team helped us.”
For Peshawar skipper Darren Sammy, however, nothing is going right for the moment. He was as usual candid about his team’s performance. “We have put ourselves in this position. this year we still have a chance but we have to take more responsibility when we are batting and bowling. We know their team (Islamabad) was better than us, but so far we have not played our best cricket and that’s why we are number five.”
Another team for which everything went wrong was Lahore Qalandars. They lost six matches in succession and finally recorded their first win when they defeated Multan Sultans on Friday. Their manager Rana Sameen after their first win said: “There is relief more than joy. It’s a united team and there are too many emotions attached. It’s been a difficult journey. We play for pride. Everybody was trying to give their best but there were some mistakes.”
Sameen said though their skipper Brendon McCullum had offered to step down as captain, McCullum will not be replaced. “We have never thought about replacing McCullum. He is really committed to the cause of Lahore Qalandars. We have hundred per cent faith in Brendon. He has changed his game for the sake of the team,” he said.
Tom Moody, the coach of the Multan team hasn’t taken the defeat to Lahore lightly but declared that his team did not lose the match due to complacency. “We recognise that Lahore had a difficult tournament todate, we also recognise that they have some serious match winners in their team. We need to continue to perform so that we can have the momentum through the whole tournament so complacency doesn’t spring to minds. The game shifted dramatically after the first half or just before the first half, the back half of the batting become difficult. The ball became soft and also was reversing and it was hard to get the ball away all that down to the changed ball after (Kumar Sangakkara) hit that six early on. I think that was the fourth over. The change ball as a replacement was not as hard and new as we were using.”
