Shadab’s 91 in vain as Islamabad United fall short of 218 target by 20 runs
Multan Sultans 217 for 5 (David 71, Rossouw 67*, Wasim 1-39) beat Islamabad United 197 (Shadab 91, Khushdil 4-35, Willey 3-38) by 20 runs
The Islamabad captain arrived at the crease in the sixth over after Paul Stirling and Alex Hales had provided a quick start in reply to Sultans’ score of 217, racing to 22 off his first eight deliveries. Although two wickets from Khushdil Shah in the eighth over threatened to quieten things, Shadab continued striking boundaries virtually every over to keep Islamabad in the game.
With 55 to get off the final over four overs, Shadab looked like pulling off a miracle for his team before a quiet 18th over all but sealed the match for Sultans.
The majority of that damage was done in the final six overs, in which Sultans piled up 107 runs. First David hit three fours off Mohammad Wasim in the 15th, before he and Rossouw combined to pick 21 off Faheem Ashraf in the following over.
With three overs to go, they took 23 off Hasan Ali, 14 off Wasim and again 21 off Hasan, who ended up conceding 52 from four overs. In the end though, the total would prove just enough, as Shadab lacked support in what turned out to be a closer-than-expected finish.