Shehzad sparkles as Quetta record successive wins

Ahmed Shehzad sparkled with a free-flowing 71 as Quetta Gladiators completed a eight-wicket win over Karachi Kings in a Pakistan Super League group encounter at the Dubai International Stadium on Saturday (February 6). Shahzad was involved in a 92-run opening stand with Luke Wright as Quetta hunted down Karachi's total of 147 with 16 balls to spare. The Gladiators, by virtue of their second win on the bounce, move to the top of the points table.

Batting under lights has been significantly easier than in the afternoon in the season so far. Nevertheless, Wright received a huge reprieve on the second ball of the chase when he was beaten on the cut to a Imad Wasim arm-ball. The umpire was misled by the possibility of the ball having hit bat first. Replays showed otherwise.

The right-handed duo made full use of the gift to assert themselves on Karachi. Shoaib Malik's ploy to begin with two left-arm spinners then back-fired as Shakib al Hasan dragged his length short and was repeatedly hit through the in-field square on the off side. Friday's hat-trick hero Mohammad Amir was seen off as Quetta added 39 in the first six. More importantly, no wickets had been lost.

A 16-run over from Shakib was followed by another of spin, from Malik, that went for 14 as Shehzad and Wright began using their feet to the spinners with aplomb. Malik rotated his bowlers around but to no avail. The most economical of Karachi's spinners, Imad, eventually ended the 92-run opening stand, when Wright attempted to get to his second 50 of the tournament with consecutive sixes but fell to a superb catch in the deep from Nauman Anwar. Shehzad, however, got to his and continued to play his shots before falling with only 10 runs left to get.

Earlier, an afternoon start gave Quetta captain Sarfraz Ahmed another invitation to insert the opposition and throw his spinners into action. But Karachi were a man down even before a ball of spin was bowled. Nauman recorded his second successive duck, top-edging an attempted pull off Anwar Ali to be caught at third man. Lendl Simmons, who scored a brisk half-century against Lahore, was tied down by Zulfiqar Babar and managed a solitary run off his first 11 deliveries.

With Simmons struggling to get going, James Vince attempted to breathe life into Karachi's innings by taking more chances. He was dropped at slip off Babar when Akbar, the fielder, copped a blow to his nose and had to be taken off. Vince followed that with a flat-batted swat-six off Umar Gul in the next over. Simmons, in an attempt to accelerate the scoring, stepped out to left-armer Nawaz and was holed out at long off. His dismissal followed a period of play in which spinners, Nawaz and Mohammad Nabi, choked the scoring rate, culminating in Vince's dismissal - stumped Sarfraz bowled Nabi.

Nabi accounted for a overzealous Shakib in his next over and Karachi faced the prospect of a sub-par total before Malik and Ravi Bopara got together for a steady stand. The duo started by working the singles. 12 runs came off the next two overs before Gul was taken for a couple of fours in his third to start the final-overs push. 19 runs came off the final two overs of spin and 52 off the final five as Karachi posted the highest total of the PSL season so far, a total that was not enough to challenge Quetta's well-oiled batting line-up.

Brief Scores: Karachi Kings 147/7 in 20 overs (Ravi Bopara 40, Shoaib Malik 37; Md. Nabi 2-32, Anwar Ali 2-33) lost to Quetta Gladiators 153/2 in 17.2 overs (Ahmed Shehzad 71, Luke Wright 47; Imad Wasim 1-31) by eight wickets.