In the first eliminator match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) XI, Hyderabad Kingsmen defeated Multan Sultan by 8 wickets and were eliminated from the competition. Kingsmen will face Islamabad United in Eliminator 2.
The match played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore was one-sided, with Hyderabad Kingsmen dominating from start to finish, restricting Multan Sultans to 159 runs and then reaching the target in the 16th over without any trouble.
Usman Khan was dismissed for 64 runs and Muaz Sadeqat played an unbeaten 64 runs. Labushin did not go out for 11 runs and Saim Ayyub for 15 runs.
Muhammad Ismail and Steve Smith took a wicket each for Multan Sultans.
Sultans of Multan:
Earlier, Hyderabad Kingsmen won and invited Multan Sultans to bat first. Sultans scored 159 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Experienced Shaan Masood remained unbeaten on 69 runs.
Muhammad Nawaz became the second leading batsman with 18 runs. Sahibzada Farhan played 15 runs and Steve Smith played 13 runs.
Hyderabad Kingsmen bowling led with Muhammad Ali, Akif Javed and Haneen Shah taking two wickets each, Glenn Maxwell and Saeem Ayub taking one wicket each.
Muaz Sadaqat of Hyderabad Kingsmen was Man of the Match for his impressive batting performance.
Now Hyderabad Kingsmen will face Islamabad United in Eliminator 2 and the winner of this match will play against Peshawar Zalmi in the final.
Chiefs speaking on the occasion of the launch:
There were no changes in the Hyderabad Kingsmen team, captain Marinus Labushin said that they will try to knock out the opposition at a low price.
Usman Khan became the highest century scorer in PSL history
Multan Sultans captain Ashton Turner said that the wicket looks very good to bat on, we will try to score more than 200.
Muhammad Nawaz replaced Wasim Jr in Multan Sultans playing XI.
It is worth mentioning that Multan Sultans continued to be in the second place in the league stage, but dropped to the third place after defeat in the last two matches. His record in Lahore was impressive and the team won four out of five matches.
On the other hand, Hyderabad Kingsmen made a remarkable comeback. After losing the first four matches, back-to-back wins took them into the play-offs and a dramatic win in the final league match saw the team qualify for the play-offs with a better net score.
