Karachi beat Multan, move to second spot

Shahid Afridi of Karachi Kings reacts after dismissing Saif Badar of Sultan Multans in Dubai on Saturday. - Photo by Neeraj Murali

Shahid Afridi has this habit of proving his doubters wrong. Just when the knives are out, the 38-year-old pulls a rabbit out of the hat. He did that again on Saturday when bagging three wickets in Karachi Kings' 63-run win over Multan Sultans in the HBL Pakistan Super League at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
After 22 matches of the 3rd edition, Islamabad lead the PSL standings with 10 points from seven matches, while Karachi pushed Multan to second spot with a better net run rate. Karachi have also played only seven matches to Multan's nine. The Imad Wasim-led side had begun the tournament on a right footing by winning their first three matches. The turnaround in their fortunes came when their match against the same opponents in Sharjah was washed out due to rain. Both teams split points without a ball being bowled.
That seemed to have upset Karachi's momentum as two defeats followed and their morale looked down. But on Saturday they came back with vengeance and it was the debutants Multan Sultans who faced their wrath, so to speak.
Put into bat, Joe Denly and Babar Azam flayed the Multan bowlers to all corners of the ground. Their 118-run second-wicket partnership almost took the match away from Multan.
Although they lost opener Lendl Simmons (4) early, Denly and Azam showed they were not going to be cowed down. Needing a win to keep them afloat in the tournament, the duo went on the rampage.
Denly clobbered two sixes and 10 boundaries during his knock of 78 which came from just 55 balls. Babar Azam was not to be left behind. His 58 from 39 balls had a six and six fours.
Joining the run feast was Colin Ingram slamming four towering sixes on his way to 29 from eight balls to take Karachi Kings to their highest score of 188 in this edition. Multan knew it was not going to be easy especially once Kumar Sangakkara was out for 18.
Ahmed Shehzad chipped in with 24 but the rest, including Shoaib Malik and Kieron Pollard, fell like nine pins against some vintage bowling from Afridi. Multan were bowled out for 125.
Afridi, the Man-of-the-Match didn't take all the credit at the post-match ceremony. Instead he lauded his batsmen. "I want to give credit to Babar, Denly and Ingram for posting such a match-winning score." As for his bowling, he said he tries to keep things simple in T20Is and look for variations.
It was Multan's third straight defeat and Shoaib Malik took it on the chin. "It's part of the game. You learn from your mistakes and this is not the end of the world. We conceded few extra runs while bowling and struggled a bit while batting too.
"Earlier in the day the pitch was fresh but all credit to their openers. They accelerated at the right time and got a good score."
clareto@khaleejtimes.com
Brief scores
Karachi Kings 188/3 in 20 overs (Joe Denly 78, Babar Azam 58, Colin Ingram 29, Hardus Viljoen 2-49) vs Multan Sultans 125 all out (Sohail Tanvir not out 34, Ahmed Shehzad 24, Shahid Afridi 3-18, Mohammad Irfan 2-1)