Cricket Highlights, 04 Mar: PSL 2023 (Match 19) – Islamabad United vs Karachi Kings

Islamabad United vs Karachi Kings (Match 19) – Highlights

Azam Khan’s devastating innings brought up a stunning 6-wicket victory for Islamabad United over Karachi Kings in the 19th match of PSL 2023 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Azam Khan was adjudged the player of the match for his match-winning innings of unbeaten 72 off 41 balls hitting 8 fours and 4 sixes.

Winning the toss, Kings captain Imad Wasim elected to bat first. United went down to the field first as a result of that. The Kings collected a big score of 201 runs after losing 5 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs. In response, United reached the port of victory after losing only 4 wickets with 4 balls to spare.

The Kings’ batters did not get off to a good start. They collected a whopping 61 runs in 6 overs of the power play but lost three wickets then. Opener Sharjeel Khan scored 8 and Adam Rossington got 20 runs before returning to the dressing room. Tayyab Tahir (19), who went down to bat at one-down, also failed to settle down on the wicket.

After that, experienced batsman Shoaib Malik returned to the pavilion scoring 12 runs off 11 balls and the team’s scoreboard stood at 78/4 at the end of 9 overs. Team captain Imad Wasim gave the team a strong fightback from there. Thanks to his brilliant innings of 92 runs off 54 balls, the Kings got a big score. He smashed 11 fours and 2 sixes to play this innings.

Irfan Khan (30 from 20 balls) and Matthew Wade (13* from 6 balls) provided Imad with worthy support. They made a remarkable partnership of 99 runs for the 5th wicket together. Irfan also made a partnership of 24 runs with Wade for the 6th wicket.

Tom Curran took the maximum number of 2 wickets for United. Besides, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, and Rumman Raees took 1 wicket each.

United’s batsmen got off to a solid start chasing the challenging target of 201 runs. They picked up 62 runs after losing two wickets in 6 overs of power play. Opener Colin Munro returned to the dressing room with 11 runs in 5 balls in the first over after coming down to the chase. However, another opener Alex Hales (34 runs from 16 balls) was dismissed in the last ball of the 6th over.

After that, Rassie van der Dussen, who was on the wicket, could not survive for long. He got out for 69 runs in the 8th over of the innings. From there, wicket-keeper batsmen Azam Khan and Faheem Ashraf took the team to victory. These two put together an impeccable partnership of 125 runs for the 4th wicket.

Faheem returned to the pavilion after scoring 41 runs off 32 balls, but Azam Khan left the field playing an unbeaten innings of 72 runs. Asif Ali remained unbeaten with 10 runs from 2 balls alongside him. In the end, United reached the threshold of victory with 6 wickets in hand playing 19.2 overs.

Mohammad Amir, Tabraiz Shamsi, and Aamer Yamin took 1 wicket each for the Kings.

Islamabad United has got up to 3rd place in the points table with four wins and two losses in six matches. On the other hand, Karachi Kings is still in the 5th position in the points table with two wins and six losses taking part in eight matches.

Islamabad United vs Karachi Kings Scoreboard

Karachi Kings – 201/5 (20.0)

Islamabad United – 204/4 (19.2)

Result – Islamabad United won by 6 wickets

Player of the match – Azam Khan

Karachi Kings

Islamabad United vs Karachi Kings Playing XIs