Dubai: Quetta Gladiators through a fine bowling display led by Dwayne Bravo and Sohail Tanvir wrecked Multan Sultans and pulled off an impressive six-wicket win in the 22nd match of the Pakistan Super League at the Dubai International Stadium.
Bravo and Tanvir produced identical figures of 3 for 19 backed by Mohammad Nawaz with two for 32 to bowl out Multan for 121 in 20 overs. Except for Johnson Charles, who top scored with 46 runs off 36 balls with five boundaries and one six ,and skipper Shoaib Malek with 21 runs, none of the other batsmen rose to the challenge to post a fighting total.
Chasing the small total, Quetta opener Shane Watson (33) and Rilee Rossouw (35) along with Ahmad Shehzad with an unbeaten 28 ensured the victory with six balls to spare.
This was Quetta’s fifth win in seven matches while Multan crashed to their sixth defeat in eight matches.
Quetta had won the toss and put Multan into bat. Opener James Vince lasted only six balls before being bowled by Mohammad Nawaz for 9 in the second over. Johnson Charles, fresh from his half century against Peshawar on Thursday, joined opener Umar Siddiq, went for his shots. Charles escaped being caught by Nawaz at deep mid-wicket off Fawad Ahmad at his score on 33.
Mohammad Hasnain had Siddiq pull to Watson at deep square leg for 14. In the first ten overs, Multan were 62 for 2. In the 12th over, Nawaz trapped Charles leg before when he was just four short of his half century.
Skipper Shoaib Malek walked in and hit Hasnain for a six and a boundary in the 15th over. In the 16th over disaster struck Multan with Thomas Moores getting bowled to Dwayne Bravo, Daniel Christian too got run out for 2 to the next ball. Shahid Afridi joined Malek and steered the team past the 100 run mark.
Malek fell to the first ball of the 19th over from Bravo for 21 by getting caught at deep square leg and Afridi fell to the fifth ball of that over getting caught at mid-off for 4.
In the last over , Sohail Tanvir picked the wickets off Mohammad Ilyas and Nouman Ali off successive balls and with the last ball he clean bowled Mohammad Irfan.
Quetta openers Watson and Ashan Ali gave them a strong start. They put on 49 runs in 5.5 overs when Watson played Afridi onto his stumps for 33. Ahmad Shehzad joined Ahsan but Afridi clean bowled Ahsan for 17 at the score on 55.
Rilee Rossouw and Shehzad batted cautiously and at the half way mark needed another 58 runs. They steered the team past the 100 run mark in 15.4 overs . Rossouw got run out by Ilyas’ thrown from fine leg for 35 when Quetta needed 16 more runs from 18 balls. Next man Umar Akmal fell for a duck after being caught at deep mid-wicket off Ilyas. Bravo walked in to join Shehzad as Quetta needed 12 runs off the last 12 balls. Shehzad, through his unbeaten 28, helped the team reach the target with six balls to spare.
Brief scores:
Multan Sultans 121 in 20 overs (Johnson Charles 46, Shoaib Malek 21, Sohail Tanvir 3 for 19, Mohammad Nawaz 2 for 32, Dwayne Bravo 3 for 19)
Quetta Gladiators 122 for 4 in 19 overs (Shane Watson 33, Ahmad Shehzad 28n.o, Rilee Rossouw 35, Shahid Afridi 2 for 18) Man of the match: Dwayne Bravo.
