Islamabad United have been crowned the champions of Pakistan Super League (PSL) season 9, beating Multan Sultans by 2 wickets in the National Bank Stadium, Karachi on Monday.
Shadab Khan-led Islamabad, who won their third PSL title, adding to their title wins in 2016 and 2018, are now the most successful team in the event’s history.
Muhammad Rizwan-led, Multan Sultans, after this loss, have lost three consecutive PSL finals. In 2022 and 2023 finals, Multan were beaten by Lahore Qalanders.
Islamabad United chased down the 160 run target on the last ball of their innings.
The match was decided on the last ball when Hunain Shah entered to bat with one run required for the win. With a great strategy, the youthful player took advantage of the gap at point and hit the ball for a four.
Islamabad lost three wickets in the powerplay and were 55-3 after which their most experienced batter Martin Guptill and Azam Khan stitched an important 47-run partnership that helped them retain the driving position.
However, Guptill was run out after making 50 runs on 32 balls in the 12.5 overs due to a small misunderstanding with Azam and as a result, their team was 102-4.
Then as Azam looked back at the pavilion, Imad Wasim, the hero of the eliminators, and Naseem Shah stepped down the order to contribute with their valuable contributions, scoring 19 and 17 runs respectively.
In the Sultans’ first innings, Mohammad Rizwan was bowled by Naseem Shah but he got another chance as the bowler was disqualified for going outside the crease.
Except for Sultans, who didn’t get much space to play on as Imad Wasim removed the in-form Yasir Khan and David Willey in the second over.
The wickets continued to fall with the dismissal of Rizwan but Usman remained on the field and was relentless in his attack on Islamabad’s bowlers. The UAE international was out shortly after celebrating his half-century. Shadab Khan took him out for just 57 runs on 40 balls.
It seemed like the Sultans would not reach the 130-run target as they had lost nine wickets for the score of 127 in 18 overs but Iftikhar survived till the end and helped Rizwan’s team to post a competitive score.
Iftikhar showed his skills in the last overs when he completed his short cameo scoring 32 runs with the aid of 4 fours and as many sixes in 20 balls, when he was 33.
For Imad, the Islamabad player, his five-wicket haul was a first-time achievement in the PSL final.
