Karachi Kings earned their first points of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2017 edition as they edged out Islamabad United in a rain marred clash at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Kings were placed at 75 for four after 9.4 overs when rain returned to halt the game one last time; they were eight runs ahead of the required score at that stage of their innings as per the Duckworth-Lewis D/L method.
Man-of-the-match Babar Azam was the star for Kings scoring an unbeaten 47 off only 30 balls, his innings included two sixes and five fours, Mohammad Irfan bowled a hostile opening spell and returned figures of two wickets for only seven runs off his three overs.
Earlier, United’s innings was reduced to 13 overs after a series of rain stoppages. Islamabad’s batsmen struggled to cope with the demanding conditions and kept losing wickets in their pursuit of quick runs. Overseas pair of Dwayne Smith (29) and Shane Watson (26) made valuable contributions to the eventual tally of 90 runs. Smith struck three sixes including one off Kashif Bhatti that cleared the stadium, Watson struck two sixes off Mohammad Amir in the penultimate over of the innings.
The final over was a tale of woes for United as three batsmen were run out while speedster Usman Shinwari took the wicket of Asif Ali who was smartly caught by Sangakkara behind the stumps.
Kings target was revised to 95 as per the Duckworth Lewis D/L method.
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