Quetta Gladiators need to improve fielding: Sarfaraz Ahmed

• Sarfaraz says Quetta Gladiators could have won the match if they had wickets in hand.
• Says Quetta Gladiators need to improve fielding.
• Multan Sultans captain Mohammad Rizwan appreciates Khushdil Shah’s performance.

Quetta Gladiators captain Sarfaraz Ahmed pointed out that Ifkihkar Ahmed’s wicket was a turning point in their match against the Multan Sultans a day earlier.

In the seventh match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), the Multan Sultans defeated Quetta Gladiators by six runs after a nail-biting competition.

Quetta Gladiators captain Sarfaraz Ahmed remarked during the post-match ceremony that it was a thrilling encounter and that they could have won if they had wickets in hand at the end.

"Iftikhar Ahmed’s wicket was the turning point of the game. If he had played till the last over of the match, the result would have been a different one," Sarfaraz added.

Sarfaraz went on to comment on the team's performance, saying that the bowlers for QG are doing a good job, but that the fielding needs to be improved.

On the other hand, Multan Sultans captain Mohammad Rizwan appreciated Khushdil Shah’s performance and said that he is doing great in bowling, fielding and batting.

He further commented on playing conditions in Karachi and said that if a team is losing the toss, they also lose the match at National Stadium.  

The match

David Willey's last over wickets and Shan Masood's 88-run knock sealed the deal for the Multan Sultans in their Monday match against the Quetta Gladiators.

The Gladiators were smelling victory in the last over as they needed eight runs from six balls, but Willey did not let them get the better of the Sultans at the National Stadium.

Willey dismissed two players — Sohail Tanvir (13) and Naseem Shah (1) — to take Multan Sultans to a 6-run victory, as Gladiators were all-out at 168, with a ball remaining.

The top order was sent back to the pavilion early, with Ahsan Ali scoring 24 and Will Smeed just three runs. Ben Duckett stood his ground and scored 47 but after that, no one was able to rise up to the occasion.

Khushdil Shah, Willey, and Imran Tahir picked up three wickets as they ran through the batting lineup of the Gladiators, while James Faulkner was run out in 19th over.

The Sultans are still at the top of the points table with six points to their name as they have not yet lost a single of the three matches they've played so far.

Quetta Gladiators' innings

Earlier, after being invited to bat, the Sultans managed to hand Quetta a 175-run target in 20 overs for the loss of four wickets, but there were several hiccups along the way.

The lead run-scorer of PSL 7, Mohammad Rizwan, was dismissed in the second over — and that too for a duck. After the skipper went down, the Qalandars were sailing smoothly, but in the ninth over, James Faulkner was dismissed for 21.

During these dismissals, and Rilee Rossouw's run out in the middle of it, Masood was leading the way and keeping the Gladiators' boat afloat.

Finally, he was also sent packing in the second ball of the 19th over, but he had done his job by scoring 88 runs, with the help of six fours and four sixes.

In the last over, Tim David and Khushdil Shah put up a good fight as they scored 16 runs.

Of the seven games played between the two sides, so far, Sultans have won three and Quetta pocketed victories in four games.