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Tuesday February 25, 2025

Multan Sultans demolish Karachi Kings for big win

Multan Sultans with their disciplined bowling overpowered Karachi Kings right from the start

By Our Correspondent
February 19, 2024
In this image, Multan Sultans players celebrate during the match on February 18, 2024. — Facebook/Multan Sultans
In this image, Multan Sultans players celebrate during the match on February 18, 2024. — Facebook/Multan Sultans

MULTAN: Multan Sultans hammered Karachi Kings with a comprehensive 55 runs triumph in the first match of the HBL Pakistan Super League 2024 at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Sunday night.

After getting 185 runs for two, Multan Sultans compressed Karachi Kings well enough to extract quite a big win by only allowing them to reach 130 for eight. Multan kept jolting Karachi batting order at regular intervals, pushing the hapless Shan Masood side to the wall.

Multan Sultans with their disciplined bowling overpowered Karachi Kings right from the start. Defending the lowest but a fighting total thus far scored in the current league, Multan damaged the Kings batting line more frequently.

Multan’s attack pacer David Willey with two back-to-back wickets on the second and third ball of the third over targeted James Vince and Saad Baig, leaving Kings struggling at 10 for two. After an enormous effort, Kings reached 62 by the ninth over to only see Shan Masood cave in to Usama Mir at 30 in 31 balls. His 52-run partnership with Shoaib Malik was not fruitful enough to pave the way for the Kings path to achieve the target.

Veteran Shoaib Malik used all of his experience under his belt and provided glimpses of his hay-days in getting his half century but the task swelled too big to achieve. Malik after getting 52 took Karachi score to 99 before becoming the first target of Abbas Afridi who in the same over at 100 runs of Karachi got the prized wicket of Mohammad Nawaz.

Even Karachi’s foreign recruit Daniel Sams and Hasan Ali became back-to-back victims of Mohammad Ali in the 15th over both for duck. With all Karachi recognized batters back to the pavilion, it was only left for Kieron Pollard and Mir Hamza, who were at the crease then and the following players in Tabraiz Shamsi and Mohammad Amir Khan to get 84 runs in 24 balls. Hamza became the third scalp of Ali while Pollard (28) and Shamsi remained not out.

Muhammad Ali, David Willey, Abbas Afridi demolished Karachi batting with three, two and two wickets respectively while Usama Mir had one.

Karachi Kings contained Multan Sultans to as low score as of 185 for two in the opening match of the Pakistan Super League 2024 at the Multan Stadium on Sunday evening.

Dawid Malan and Reeza Hendricks came up with a solid second wicket stand to bolster Multan Sultans total after and early blow.

Though Karachi dented Multan with the wicket of captain Mohammad Rizwan (two) in third over for 17, Malan and Reeza developed 121 runs together at the end of the 16th over. Malan and Reeza in the progression also reached their 59th and 42nd half centuries respectively. Mir Hamza found Rizwan right in front of the wickets when he reached 11 runs and Multan was at 17 then.

As Malan completed his mark in 39 balls and later ended up scoring 52 runs in 41 balls, Reeza took 39 balls to reach his fifty and kept scoring alongside Khushdil Shah.

Malan timed five boundaries one of which was a six. He became the first scalp of Daniel Sams. Reeza and Khushdil build 47 runs for the third wicket and both remained not out. Reeza for his 79 runs innings took 54 balls while Khushdil’s 13-ball effort got him 28 runs. As Khushdil hit four fours, Reeza smashed seven but he also lofted three sixes. Karachi Kings that won the toss and elected to bowl first, saw Hamza and Sams earn success with one wicket each.

Multan Sultans have established themselves as one of the most consistent teams in recent PSL seasons, having reached the finals in the last three campaigns. As they commenced a new season, the Sultans showed more determined to uphold their impressive track record.