Quetta Gladiators 182 for 6 (Rossouw 53, Shakeel 42, Hasan Nawaz 39, Sears 3-41, Amir 2-31) beat Rawalpindiz 121 (Masood 31, Mitchell 30, Shakeel 2-4, Jahandad 2-8, Tariq 2-23) by 61 runs
While Rossouw (53 off 42) picked his deliveries to hit boundaries, Shakeel (42 off 39) milked the bowlers around for ones and twos to lay the groundwork for the power-hitters. Hasan and Jahandad obliged. Hasan blasted five sixes in his 39 off 16 and Jahandad plundered two sixes and two fours in his 21 not out off just six balls as Gladiators amassed 88 runs in the last seven overs.
Jahandad then dented Rawalpindiz’s run chase on the first ball as Rizwan edged him to Rossouw at first slip. As the partnership of 27 between Usman Khawaja, who was playing his first match of the season, and Yasir Khan started to look promising, a mix up resulted in the former being run out. A collapse of four wickets for only five runs at the halfway stage of the innings made the defeat inevitable, but Saad Masood’s lofty blows after the strategic timeout delayed it a little. Masood top-scored with 31 off 19 balls.
There was a little drama earlier when Daryl Mitchell pulled out twice from his stance because of Usman Tariq’s pause before delivery. But he resumed batting after being instructed by the on-field umpire. The matter cooled down and the two players shook hands at the completion of the over.
The match was sealed with a run out as a shy from Rossouw found Mohammad Amir, who jogged rather than sprinted towards the danger end, short of the non-striker’s end. It was an apt ending to the match, which saw Rawalpindiz make all sorts of errors – their fielders fumbled and their batters threw their wickets away.
