Quetta Gladiators beat Islamabad United in nail-biting fixture

LAHORE: The Quetta Gladiators defeated Islamabad United in a nail-biting match at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday, courtesy Sarfaraz Ahmed and Umar Akmal's sensational knocks.

The Gladiators scored 203 runs while chasing 200 and beat United by 5 wickets during match 18 of the Pakistan Super League's (PSL) seventh edition.

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United — who handed a 200-run target to Gladiators — were provided with a quick-fire 48 run opening stand by Hales and Rehmanullah Gurbaz. Gurbaz was clean bowled by Naseem Shah, but Hales continued to carve out runs.

Hales also launched a 52-run second-wicket stand with United skipper Shadab Khan who could only manage to score 12 runs. Hales scored 62 runs off 38 balls with four sixes and four fours.

Other batters Asif Ali, Azam Khan, Mohammad Akhlaq, and Liam Dawson also failed to play a huge knock. But it was Faheem Ashraf who came to the rescue as he played a brilliant inning of 55 runs off 28 balls with the help of four sixes and five fours.

In the end, Mohammad Wasim launched two successive sixes to take the total to 199.

For Gladiators' all the bowlers went to the cleaners except Shahid Afridi and Noor Ahmed by registering a brilliant economy rate of 6.75.

Afridi took two wickets for 27 runs in four overs, while Noor took one by giving away 27 runs in the four-over spell.

Playing XI

Islamabad United: Muhammad Akhlaq, Alex Hales, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shadab Khan (c), Azam Khan (wk), Asif Ali, Liam Dawson, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Hasan Ali, Zeeshan Zameer

Quetta Gladiators: Ahsan Ali, Jason Roy, James Vince, Sarfraz Ahmed (c) (wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Umar Akmal, James Faulkner, Shahid Afridi, Noor Ahmad, Naseem Shah, Ghulam Mudassar

Live updates of the match will be available below the line.