In an adorable moment, Imad Wasim’s daughter received her father’s Player of the Match award after Islamabad United beat Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2024 Eliminator on Friday in Karachi.
Imad bagged the award after registering impressive figures of 3-12 in four overs. Saud Shakeel, Rilee Rossouw and Khawaja Nafay were among Imad’s victims with the ball.
“I think what we saw in the last few games, it was spinning, holding a bit, the thing I did well was to bowl really slow, it was gripping and it went well,” Imad said at the post-match ceremony.
“I tried to bowl more slow balls than arm balls and mixed it up...worked for me...we restricted them and took wickets which is the best thing, if you do one of these right, you will win because powerplay is very important,” he added.
It must be noted that Islamabad United defeated Quetta Gladiators by 39 runs. The win saw United making way to the second Eliminator where they will take on Babar Azam's Peshawar Zalmi tomorrow at the same venue.
The Gladiators crumbled during their 175-run chase as they fell 39 runs short. Islamabad’s bowlers were all over the chasing side and didn’t let them get back in the game from the very start.
Chasing the target, Quetta suffered multiple blows right at the start of their innings as they had lost five wickets for just 16 runs in the first five overs.
Imad picked three, Naseem got two while Obey McCoy, Hunain Shah and Faheem Ashraf picked one wicket each.
Batting first, despite a slow start, Islamabad picked up rhythm and started blasting boundaries.
Martin Guptill top-scored for the two-time PSL winners with 56 off 47 deliveries courtesy of six boundaries. He was followed by Salman Ali Agha who contributed 31 runs on 21 balls.
- Imad Wasim