In the final over, trailing 197 might indicate that this match was more of a humdinger. In fact, it was a messy, glitch contest that very few on either side deserved to win. As is always the case with games like these, Islamabad United too often finds a way to get across the fence, as it did on Wednesday, resisting Sharjeel Khan’s impressive 59-ball 105.
As he stumbled, almost dismally, for fluency in the Powerplay, the Karachi Kings opener looked doomed to have cost his team the game, but 94 off his final 35 balls enabled power his side to the championship’s highest first-innings tally. It was his opening partner, Babar Azam, whose 54-ball 62 turned out to be a stunning match-losing innings. Though Sharjeel wobbled, he may have been the one holding the run rate alive, but fell worse at death when the inclusion of a power-hitter could have driven Karachi more than just the 196 they ended up with.
Islamabad replied by hitting from the beginning, driven in the Powerplay by Alex Hales and Faheem Ashraf, and they managed to go for their shots even as the wickets dropped, refusing the request rate to get through control. Over the middle overs, an invaluable 94-run stand among Iftikhar Ahmed and Hussain Talat kept things intact, but while Karachi was never out from the game until the penultimate over, they never again found an efficient way to create some kind of pressure on the chasing side.