Watch: Islamabad United secured a third Pakistan Super League title yesterday (March 18) with a thrilling final ball victory over Multan Sultans, Hunain Shah hitting a boundary off the final ball of the match to score the winning runs.
Having restricted Multan Sultans to 159-9 in their innings, Imad Wasim claiming the first five wicket haul in a PSL final Islamabad United lost two wickets during the powerplay. However, a half-century off 30 balls for Martin Guptill at the top of the order stabilized the innings, and at 102-3 in the 13th over they looked well on their way to the target.
Disaster then struck, with Guptill run out thanks to a sharp throw into Mohammad Rizwan from Iftikhar Ahmed. The wicket triggered a near fatal collapse for Islamabad, as four wickets fell for 27 runs. Azam Khan, Haider Ali and Faheem Ashraf were all dismissed in consecutive overs to leave Islamabad 129-7 with three overs to go, still needing 21 runs to win.
Naseem Shah then took matters into his own hands with the bat. He hit a four and a huge sixth after Iftikhar’s 18th over, before Imad Wasim hit back-to-back fours off Imad Wasim’s 18th. When the final over of the match began, Islamabad only needed eight runs to secure the win.
Mohammad Ali delivered a brilliant yorker off his first ball to concede a single, before Naseem flicked his second for a four through midwicket. A leg bye and a single off the next two balls brought the scores level before the drama reached fever pitch.
Naseem edged the penultimate ball, a bouncer from Ali, through to Mohammad Rizwan to bring his younger brother Hunain to the middle. Needing just a single to win, Hunain delicately dabbed a back-of-a-length ball from Ali through backward point, which raced away to the boundary, cuing wild celebrations from the Islamabad players.
Watch: Hunain Shah hits final ball boundary to win 2024 PSL
EPIC END 😍
Hunain Shah gets the job done ✅#HBLPSLFinal | #HBLPSL9 | #KhulKeKhel | #MSvIU pic.twitter.com/ejokGzcdGC
— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) March 18, 2024
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