PSL 7 opens today with a fantastically star-studded opening ceremony and the first match of the season, Karachi Kings vs Multan Sultans. The battle between Kings and Sultans began at 8 PM today with Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan walking on the pitch with the match officials for the toss.
The gems of Pakistan national team, the opening duo of Pakistan faced each other for the toss that was won by Mohammad Rizwan and the Sultan’s decided to bowl first, as the pitch looked perfect for a bowl first, battle second condition.
First Innings – Sultans Take Over
Multan Sultans annihilated the Karachi Kings batting. The first match of the PSL 7 proved to be a blistering hit as Karachi Kings batsmen were left silent with Sultan’s bowlers and fielders. The opening duo Sharjeel Khan and Babar Azam opened the matched with Khan going heavy with the bat.
However, it was all for naught. Imran Tahir drew the first blood with the massive wicket of the danger man Sharjeel Khan who went back to the stands with 43 runs under his belt for 31 balls. It wasn’t long before Kushdil Shah got the mega wicket of Baber Azam who went back to his dug out with just 23 runs to his name.
After that, Imran Tahir made a quick work of the next two batters and nabbed the wickets of Mohammad Nabi and international player Tom Lammonby. Youngster Shahnawz Dahani got the wicket of dangerous Joe Clarke who got just 26 runs in 24 balls.
The slow and sluggish Karachi Kings innings ended with Karachi Kings only making 124 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. The team played at a run rate of 6.50, which seemed to be not enough even from the get-go and left Multan sultans feeling confident about their win in the first match of PSL 7.
It looks like the previous champions will win the first match of the PSL 7.
Second Innings – Sultans Give Kings No Break
The second innings of the second PSL 7 match began with Karachi Kings waling on the field with hopes of taking early wickets and stop Multan Sultans from taking the match from them in their home ground. However, their hopes were short lived when Shan Masood and Mohammad Rizwan made quick work of the score.
While things were going smoothly for the Sultans, Mohammad Ilyas took the wicket of heavy hitter Shan Masood who was caught by Lewis Gregory. Rizwan was then joined by Sohaib Maqsood and the match was stopped for a bit when Rizwan had a little episode with a back spasm that was fixed quickly with some stretching exercises by the physio.
The chances of a Karachi King win in the first match of the PSL 2022 look close to 13% with Multan Sultan playing at almost 8 runs per over run rate. The blistering partnership between Rizwan and Maqsood came to an end just after the team made 100 runs and fell prey to Mohammad Nabi’s fantastic bowling. Stumped and back to the dugout.
Rilee Rossouw came in and was only able to put 2 runs on the board when he was caught behind on a magical Mohammad Nabi bowl. He was deemed out on a beautiful review by Karachi Kings. Rizwan was dropped at 44 runs and on the next bowl Karachi asked for an LBW review against Rizwan, but he lucked out once again.
After the fumbles of the previous balls, Rizwan completed his 50 runs with a beautiful 4 and inched his team one step closer to victory. Multan Sultan got their win in a comfortable way with a massive 6 by Tim David.
And that was the end of the 1st match of PSL 7 with 7 wickets in hand and 10 balls left.
Player of the Match
Imran Tahir was awarded the Player of the Match award and received Rs. 500,000 in cash as well as a trophy. Tahir took 3 wickets and conceded just 16 runs in his 4 overs. He said that is was fun to bowl on a slower pitch and was happy to contribute for the team.
