Shinwari leads Karachi's rampage to bump Multan out the HBL PSL - Abu Dhabi Cricket

Left-arm bowling was at its best as pace bowler Usman Shinwari and spinner Umer Khan shared seven wickets between them to help the Karachi Kings defeat the Multan Sultans by five wickets in yesterday’s HBL PSL match played at the Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.

Shinwari took a Man of the Match performance winning 4-15 and Umer walked away one short on 3-22 as Multan failed to solidify their innings, ending it on 118-7 in their allotted 20 overs.

Karachi overhauled the meagre total (but not without facing some difficulty) in 19.2 overs to raise their hopes of qualifying for the play-offs.

Multan never got going as only Hammad Azam (30-ball 29 with two boundaries and Shoaib Malik (run-a-ball 26) offered any hopes, Multan with just four points in nine games are now out of the race for the play-offs following their defeat today.

The win lifts Karachi to fourth position in the six-team table topped by the Quetta Gladiators. Karachi now have eight points from as many games with four wins and as many defeats.

Quetta have six wins in eight games and 12 points. Peshawar are second with ten points in eight matches, having won five and losing three.

Islamabad United are third with four wins and as many losses in eight games while Lahore Qalandars are fifth with six points (three wins and four losses). Multan, whose last game is against Lahore in Karachi, are sixth with two wins and seven losses in nine matches.

During their chase today, the Karachi Kings lost two early wickets, Colin Munro for 11 and Babar Azam for 12 – both wickets going to young fast bowler Mohammad Ilyas – but Colin Ingram (31) and Livingstone took the score to 82. Ilyas finished with 3-27 off his four overs.

Test specialist Mohammad Abbas (4-1-14-2) then gave Karachi a scare scalping the wickets of Ingram and Iftikhar Ahmed in the same over to leave Karachi at 82-4. It became tight when 24 were needed in the last three overs and seven in the last before Livingstone took the matter in his hands and finished the match with a six off leg-spinner Mohammad Irfan Khan.

Karachi’s Skipper Imad Wasim said his team is in a better position after the result today.

“We are now in a better position and hope that we qualify for the play-offs,” said Imad. “We did well to restrict them and then chased down the target.”

Multan’s Skipper rued lack of runs as part of their demise.

“We never got runs on the board and although the bowlers did well, we could never pressurise them because the target was low,” said Malik.

It was Shinwari who really broke the back of Multan’s batting.

Shinwari wreaked havoc with Multan’s batsmen right from the get go as he bowled Umer Siddiq with the first ball of the second over for five and then had Johnson Charles (seven) with the first of his second over.

James Vince (16) and Malik (26 with two boundaries) took the score to 44 when Umer had Vince bowled from an incoming delivery. Malik was also removed by Umer who had him caught at the boundary. Umer also had Dan Christian for five as Multan continued to lose wickets.

Earlier, Quetta thumped Peshawar by eight wickets to become the first team to qualify for the play-off stages.

Tuesday will see Lahore Qalandars meet Peshawar Zalmi while Islamabad United will square-off against Quetta Gladiators in the last two matches in UAE before the league shifts to Karachi for the final eight games.

The Karachi Kings beat Multan Sultans by five wickets in yesterday night’s match played in Abu Dhabi.