Karachi, March 19: Islamabad United defeated Multan Sultans by 2 wickets to win the Pakistan Super League (PSL) season 9 championship on Monday at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi.
Shadab Khan’s Islamabad United team is now the most successful team in the competition’s history, having won three PSL championships and two more in 2016 and 2018.
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Following this defeat, the Multan Sultans, led by Muhammad Rizwan, have now lost three straight PSL finals. Lahore Qalanders defeated Multan in the 2022 and 2023 championship games.
With the very last ball of their innings, Islamabad United managed to chase down the 160-run goal.
Hunain Shah came to bat with one run needed to win, and that ball proved to be the decisive one in the match. The young player used a brilliant move to take advantage of the gap at the point and strike the ball for a four.
After losing three wickets in the powerplay to be 55-3, Islamabad’s most seasoned batsmen, Martin Guptill and Azam Khan, forged a crucial 47-run partnership that allowed them to stay in the lead.
But owing to a minor miscommunication with Azam, Guptill was removed after scoring 50 runs on 32 balls in the 12.5 overs, leaving their team down 102-4.
The eliminators’ heroes, Imad Wasim and Naseem Shah, then descended the order to make significant contributions, scoring 19 and 17 runs, respectively, as Azam turned to face the pavilion.
Naseem Shah bowled Mohammad Rizwan in the Sultans’ opening innings, but he was given another opportunity when the bowler was ruled out for bowling beyond the crease.
Except for the Sultans, who had little room to maneuvre when Imad Wasim dismissed David Willey and the highly effective Yasir Khan in the second over.
After Rizwan was removed from the game, the wickets kept falling, but Usman stuck around and attacked the bowlers for Islamabad nonstop. Shortly after celebrating his 50th birthday, the UAE international was absent. He was dismissed for just 57 runs off of 40 balls by Shadab Khan.
The Sultans had lost nine wickets for a total of 127 in 18 overs, making it appear unlikely that they would make the target of 130 runs. However, Iftikhar persevered to the very end, helping Rizwan’s team record a respectable total.
In the last overs, Iftikhar demonstrated his abilities by finishing his brief cameo at the age of 33 and scoring 32 runs in 20 balls with four fours and as many sixes.
Imad, the player from Islamabad, took five wickets in the PSL final, a first for him.