LAHORE: Quetta Gladiators did what they needed to do. But not by the margin they needed to.

The Gladiators beat the Karachi Kings by 23 runs here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday in their final round-robin match but it still wasn’t enough for them to leapfrog Islamabad United into the final playoff spot in the standings.

The Gladiators needed to win by a huge margin to keep their qualification hopes alive but it was the Kings who dominated most parts of the game before a batting collapse led them down.

Looking to build on their first win of the campaign in the previous match, the Kings were cruising at 87-0 in their chase of 167 when skipper Babar Azam (36 off 33) dragged a good-length ball by medium-pacer Khurram Shahzad (4-22) onto his stumps.

Sharjeel Khan (16) looked like he would build from where Babar left with Joe Clarke on the other end.

The left-hander hit two sixes and a four off Hassan Khan, only to get undone by Khurram in the next over when he misjudged another length ball to see his stumps shattered in an attempt to pull through the leg-side.

Mohammad Irfan then hit the timber to bring the end of Clarke, who had hit four fours and two sixes in his 39-ball 52.

Qasim Akram did hit Ashir Qureshi for a maximum but Naseem Shah forced the Pakistan Under-19 team skipper to miscue him to Will Smeed at deep midwicket.

Naseem then sent back Rohail Nazir before Khurram returned in the penultimate over to strike twice on consecutive balls to dismiss Lewis Gregory and Tom Lammonby.

Imad Wasim was the last casualty for the Kings when he fell to Ashir in the final over.

The Gladiators were left to rue not making the most of the start opener Jason Roy had given them.

The Englishman hit 82 off 64 balls (11 fours) but didn’t get enough support from the other end. Roy lost his opening partner Smeed (11 off 7) by the end of the third over.

James Vince put up a 90-run partnership off 59 balls with Roy but the former could contribute only 29 off 21.

Umar Akmal failed to shine before Roy combined for 45 off 34 with Iftikhar Ahmed (21) but the runs didn’t come fast enough to to help Quetta set a bigger target.

Scoreboard

QUETTA GLADIATORS:

Batters & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Jason Roy c Umaid b Hamza 82 64 11 0 128.12

Will Smeed c Gregory b Shinwari 10 11 2 0 90.90

James Vince b Gregory 29 24 3 1 120.83

Umar Akmal c Gregory b Imad 2 5 0 0 40.00

Iftikhar Ahmed not out 21 14 1 1 150.00

Hassan Khan not out 3 2 0 0 150.00

EXTRAS (B-10, LB-6, W-3) 19

TOTAL (for four wickets, 20 overs) 166

DID NOT BAT: Sarfaraz Ahmed, Ashir Qureshi, Naseem Shah, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Irfan.

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-21 (Smeed), 2-111 (Vince), 3-117 (Umar), 4-162 (Roy).

BOWLING: Imad 4-0-27-1 (1w), Hamza 4-0-32-1 (1w), Usman 4-0-33-1, Umaid 4-0-25-0, Gregory 3-0-22-1, Qasim 1-0-11-0.

KARACHI KINGS:

Batters & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Joe Clarke b Irfan 52 39 4 2 133.33

Babar Azam b Shahzad 36 34 3 1 105.88

Sharjeel Khan b Shahzad 16 7 1 2 228.57

Qasim Akram c Smeed b Naseem 9 10 0 1 90.00

Rohail Nazir c Smeed b Naseem 8 12 0 0 66.66

Imad Wasim c Umar b Ashir 11 10 0 1 110.00

Lewis Gregory b Shahzad 1 3 0 0 33.33

Tom Lammonby b Shahzad 0 1 0 0 0.00

Umaid Asif not out 2 3 0 0 66.66

Usman Shinwari not out 2 2 0 0 100.00

EXTRAS (LB-5, NB-1) 6

TOTAL (for eight wickets, 20 overs) 143

DID NOT BAT: Mir Hamza.

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-87 (Babar), 2-107 (Sharjeel), 3-109 (Clarke), 4-120 (Qasim), 5-128 (Rohail)), 6-139 (Gregory), 7-139 (Lammonby), 8-139 (Imad).

BOWLING: Naseem 4-0-14-2, Hassan 4-0-43-0, Irfan 4-0-28-1, Khurram 4-0-22-4 (1nb), Ashir 4-0-31-1.

RESULT: Quetta Gladiators won by 23 runs.

UMPIRES: Aleem Dar and Asif Yaqoob (Both Pakistan).

TV UMPIRE: Rashid Riaz (Pakistan)

MATCH REFEREE: Ali Naqvi (Pakistan)

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Khurram Shahzad

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2022