Islamabad United registered the biggest-ever win in HBL Pakistan Super League history by balls remaining as they chased the meagre 81-run target against Hyderabad Kingsmen in 6.4 overs and eight wickets in hand, which effectively sealed their ticket for the Playoffs here at the National Bank Stadium on Friday night.
\nHyderabad Kingsmen were skittled for the lowest team total in the ongoing season and fifth-lowest in the HBL PSL history with player of the match Richard Gleeson, Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan picking up three wickets each.
\nWith United becoming the third team to qualify for the Playoffs besides Peshawar Zalmi and Multan Sultans, fourth-placed Lahore Qalandars, fifth-placed Hyderabad Kingsmen and sixth-placed Karachi Kings are tied on eight points each.
\nQuetta Gladiators are seventh on the table and their chances of overtaking the other three teams depend on them winning against Karachi on Saturday and Lahore and Hyderabad losing their last league games.
\nOn Saturday, Quetta will take on Karachi at 2.30 pm, while Lahore will be up against Peshawar at 7 pm at the Gaddafi Stadium in a must-win contest with the HBL PSL observing Golden Ribbon Day in order to raise awareness for childhood cancer.
\nIslamabad were spearheaded to the target by debutant right-hand batter Mohsin Riaz, who went berserk, hitting six fours and two sixes in his 18-ball 42. He also shared a 79-run second-wicket stand with Sameer Minhas (27 not out, 20b, 3x4s, 1\u00d76) after Mohammad Ali had snapped Devon Conway for a duck on the second ball of the chase.
\nMohsin also fell to Ali in the seventh over before skipper Shadab Khan sealed the victory with a four. United overtook the largest victory margin ever in HBL PSL history in terms of ball remaining from Quetta Gladiators, who had overhauled the 90-run target against Sultans in 2025 with 79 balls remaining.
\nEarlier, after being invited to bat first, Kingsmen never recovered from the loss of Maaz Sadaqat on the very first ball to Gleeson and Marnus Labuschagne in the third over to the same bowler as well, with 11 on the board.
\nGleeson returned in the sixth over to dismiss Saim Ayub as well for a run-a-ball 12 with the help of two fours. With the Kingsmen top three back in the hut on 24 runs in 4.4 overs, Shadab and Imad Wasim further put dents in the lineup with three wickets each as no.4 batter Usman Khan remained unbeaten for 25 off 35 balls, hitting one four.
\nKusal Perera fell to Shadab in the eighth over, while Imad struck and removed Maxwell to reduce the Kingsmen to 42-5 in 8.3 overs. Shadab\u2019s double strike in the 12th over on consecutive balls, removing Muhammad Irfan Khan and Hassan Khan put the Kingsmen in dire straits on 57-7 before a nine-ball 12 from Asif Mehmood, with the innings\u2019 solitary six took them to 80 all out in 15.5 overs.
\nScores in brief:
\nMatch 36 \u2013 Islamabad United beat Hyderabad Kingsmen by eight wickets at the National Bank Stadium, Karachi
\nHyderabad Kingsmen 80 all out, 15.5 overs (Usman Khan 25 not out; Richard Gleeson 3-9, Shadab Khan 3-13, Imad Wasim 3-21)
\nIslamabad United 83-2, 6.4 overs (Mohsin Riaz 42, Sameer Minhas 27 not out; Mohammad Ali 2-29)
\nPlayer of the Match \u2013 Richard Gleeson (Islamabad United).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad United registered the biggest-ever win in HBL Pakistan Super League history by balls remaining as they chased the meagre 81-run target against Hyderabad Kingsmen in 6.4 overs and eight wickets in hand, which effectively sealed their ticket for the Playoffs here at the National Bank Stadium on Friday night. Hyderabad Kingsmen were skittled for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":96815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96816,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96802\/revisions\/96816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}