KARACHI: A collaborative show of power-htiting between Tim David and Rilee Rossouw for Multan Sultans trumped Islamabad United skipper Shadab Khan’s sensational single-handed effort at the National Stadium on Tuesday.

It meant the holders extended their winning start in the HBL Pakistan Super League to four matches with the 20-run victory and left United rueing the fact that Shadab, who clobbered nine sixes and five fours in a 42-ball 91, didn’t get much support from his team-mates.

With some support, he would surely have cancelled out David and Rossouw’s 110-run partnership off only 50 balls that took Multan to 217-5 after they were put into bat.

Shadab had promoted himself up the order after United lost their explosive opening duo of Alex Hales and Paul Stirling at the start of the sixth over and announced his arrival with a four through the offside before playing a similar shot for a maximum.

Sultans skipper Mohammad Rizwan introduced Imran Tahir into the attack but that didn’t stop Shadab, hitting the South African leg-spinner straight down the ground for another boundary before clearing the long off boundary.

While he flourished, his partners perished. Rahmanullah Gurbaz picked out Willey at long-off off Khushdil Shah, before the slow left-armer trapped Faheem Ashraf on his first ball in the eighth.

Shadab hit a six in the 10th off Khushdil when the right-hander got down on one knee to launch one over long on before hitting another one against Tahir in the next over.

Anwar Ali dropped Shadab’s catch off Khushdil in the 12th but Anwar must have heaved a sigh of relief when an overbalanced Willey tossed the ball towards him after taking a running catch to dismiss Azam Khan as the wicket-keeper batter tried to hit it flat over long-on.

Shadab hit Tahir and Khushdil for three more sixes before the latter took his fourth wicket when Asif Ali, who had hit two sixes, skied the ball high, with the bowler taking a good catch.

Shadab continued to hit out as he lifted Abbas Afridi for two sixes in the 16th. The Pakistan vice-captain was dropped again, this time by Khushdil at the boundary when he was at 70 as the ball bounced off the fielder’s palms for six.

After Mubasir Khan was dismissed and with United needing 42 off 17, Shadab drove the next ball through the off-side for a four to keep the two-time champions in the game before seeing Hasan Ali run out.

Shadab hit Rumman, who returned to bowl the 19th over for a six and four before pulling a rising short ball only to be caught at the square leg boundary by David.

Earlier, David had arrived at the crease with Multan at 78-3 in the 11th over, providing the Sultans with the launching pad that saw them get 139 off the remaining nine.

The right-hander got off the mark with a four off Shadab before launching Marchant de Lange for a massive six down the ground in the next over. David swept Shadab for another maximum as he arrived to bowl the 14th.

David then took on Mohammad Wasim, hitting three fours off the pacer as Multan scored 14 in the over before Rossouw, who has already hit two fours before David’s arrival, pulled Faheem Ashraf for a six and squeezed past point for two fours.

David hit another six as Multan ended the over with 21 runs. The 17th and 18th over saw Multan score 14 and 23 runs respectively with David slogging Hasan Ali for one six and de Lange for two sixes and a four.

Meanwhile Rossouw also scored boundaries off Faheem and a six each against Hasan and de Lange. David — after scoring 71 off 29 (six fours and as many sixes) — departed in the 19th after being caught behind off Wasim with damage heavily inflicted against Islamabad with Multan cruising at 188-4.

Rossouw saw off his partner but was in no mood to relent and hammered three sixes off Hasan’s last over after Khushdil, who came in for David, hit two fours off Wasim to end the penultimate over.

David and Rossouw were in at the crease earlier than usual as Rizwan and in-form Multan opener Shan Masood departed by the ninth over.

Shan who scored 83 against Quetta Gladiators on Monday, scored 43 off 31 with the help of five fours and two sixes in an innings that saw the left-hander execute some technically perfect strokes.

The left-hander hit a boundary each in the first three overs, after starting the innings with one. While Shan kept the scoreboard ticking, Rizwan (12) couldn’t really break free.

But he made up for the slow start with two consecutive fours off Faheem before departing in the most unfortunate fashion when a straight drive by Shan brushed past Wasim’s fingers to dislodge the stumps at the non-striker end while he was outside the crease.

Shan continued to show his class as he flicked Faheem for a four and six on consecutive balls. It was Marchant de Lange who got the man-in-form when Shan missed a low full toss to be trapped leg-before after scoring 43 off 31.

Rossouw hit a towering six off Hasan who returned to bowl the 10th over but Asif Ali’s extraordinary fielding effort at square-leg boundary resulted in Sohaib Maqsood being run out after scoring 13 off 11 with the help of two fours and brought David to the crease.

Scoreboard

MULTAN SULTANS:

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

Shan Masood lbw de Lange 43 31 5 2 138.70

Mohammad Rizwan run out (Wasim) 12 11 2 0 109.09

Sohaib Maqsood run out (Asif) 13 11 2  0 118.18

Rilee Rossouw not out 67 35 4 6 191.42

Tim David c Azam b Wasim 71 29 6 6 244.82

Khushdil Shah c Shadab b Hasan 8 3 2 0 266.66

Anwar Ali not out 0 0 0 0 – EXTRAS (B-1, LB-1, W-1) 3

TOTAL (for five wickets, 20 overs) 217

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-30 (Rizwan), 2-65 (Shan), 3-78 (Maqsood), 4-188 (David), 5-203 (Khushdil).

DID NOT BAT: Abbas Afridi, Imran Tahir, Rumman Raees.

BOWLING: Hasan Ali 4-0-52-1, Faheem Ashraf 4-0-47-0 (1w), Mohammad Wasim 4-0-39-1, Marchant de Lange 4-0-48-1, Shadab Khan 4-0-29-0.

ISLAMABAD UNITED:

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

Paul Stirling c Anwar b Willey 19 10 4 0 190.00

Alex Hales c Rumman b Willey 23 14 4 0 164.28

Rahmanullah Gurbaz c Willey b Khushdil 15 13 1 1 115.38

Shadab Khan c David b Rumman 91 42 5 9 216.66

Faheem Ashraf blw Khushdil 0 1 0 0 0.00

Azam Khan c Anwar b Khushdil 12 12 1 0 100.00

Asif Ali c&b Khushdil 15 7 0 2 214.28

Mubasir Khan c Khushdil b Anwar 9 9 0 0 100.00

Hasan Ali run out (David) 3 3 0 0 100.00

Mohammad Wasim Jr b Willey 3 5 0 0 60.00

Marchant de Lange not out 0 2 0 0 0.00

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-6) 7

TOTAL (all out, 19.4 overs) 197

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-22 (Stirling), 2-57 (Hales), 3-81 (Gurbaz), 4-82 (Faheem), 5-114 (Azam), 6-138 (Asif), 7-176 (Mubasir), 8-184 (Hasan), 9-194 (Shadab).

BOWLING: Rumman 4-0-41-1 (2w), Willey 3.4-0-38-3 (1w), Abbas 2-0-26-0, Anwar 2-0-21-1 (1w), Imran 4-0-35-0, Khushdil 4-0-35-4 (2w)

RESULT: Multan Sultans won by 20 runs

UMPIRES: Michael Gough (England) and Shozab Raza (Pakistan)

TV UMPIRE: Ahsan Raza (Pakistan)

MATCH REFEREE: Iftikhar Ahmed (Pakistan)

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2022