Multan Sultans skipper Mohammad Rizwan hailed his bowlers after they defeated Quetta Gladiators by nine runs at the Pindi Club Ground, Rawalpindi on Saturday. Rizwan lauded the bowlers of his team despite his batters putting 262 runs on the board on a batting paradise.
Usman Khan scored a magnificent knock of 120 runs off 43 balls whereas Rizwan scored 55 off 29 balls as the openers added 157 runs. Tim David and Kieron Pollard added the finishing touches as they scored 43 and 23 respectively.
On the other hand, Omair Yousuf and Iftikhar Ahmed scored fifties for QTG but Abbas Afridi scalped five wickets for Multan Sultans to help his team finish second on the points table.
Mohammad Rizwan said at the post-match presentation: “Honestly we cannot find any mistakes due to the pitch. It’s difficult for the bowlers as well. Hopefully we will execute the same in the playoffs and win. We struggled as three of our main pacers – Dahani, Josh Little and Wayne Parnell were not available before the tournament and whatever we had available we trusted them. The way Abbas and Usama Mir bowled is so good to see. Our win is a lot due to the bowlers. Usman Khan I saw in the BPL and even in the T10 format, the pitch demanded a player like him tonight and it came off.”
Abbas Afridi was awarded the Player of the Match for his five-wicket haul. He said, “When we started practice tonight, I told Sikander Bakht that I’m coming to collect the trophy. I used the slower ball and yorker to get my wickets tonight. Our management is very helpful, especially Rizwan and the other senior players.”
On the other hand, Quetta Gladiators captain Mohammad Nawaz admitted that they conceded too many runs in the first innings and their mistakes in the field, led to their downfall.
He said: “Tonight we gave too many runs, we made the same mistakes, especially during fielding. We made 4 mistakes in the first two overs, we can’t afford to do the same in a match. We struggled this season due to our fielding. We have a balanced team on paper, we couldn’t gain the momentum. As I said previously on these pitches, we can make mistakes in batting and bowling, but if we keep making the same mistakes in fielding, then it’s very difficult. We have a year to work on our shortcomings, we will look at all those and plan for next year.”
Multan Sultans will face Lahore Qalandars in the first qualifier on Wednesday.
