Tahir and Rizwan shine as Multan Sultans get opening day win

The Pakistan Super League (PSL) kicked off their 7^th edition of the tournament with the defending champions Multan Sultans taking on 2020 PSL winners Karachi Kings in the opening fixture of the tournament. The match was expected to be a one-sided affair as the Multan Sultans were expected to cruise to victory in the match. The Sultans won the toss and elected to field first and managed to restrict the Kings to 125. The Sultans then went on to win the match easily by 7 wickets.

Imran Tahir came out as the bowling superstar in the match as he managed to dominate the pitch and restrict the Karachi Kings from gaining any sort of momentum whatsoever. The South African spinner ended up with a fantastic bowling figure of 3/16. The match saw the Multan Sultans gain early momentum as King’s opener Babar Azam failed to make an impact in the first league game. He finished his batting innings with a struggling 29 runs made in 23 deliveries. If it wasn’t for the Sultans bowlers, the Kings wouldn’t even come up to 125 as the total as some careless bowling allowed the Kings to gain some confidence on the pitch.

However, it wasn’t meant to be as the showman Tahir along with the bowling attack rose to the occasion yet again and managed to pick wickets in regular intervals to derail the slow King’s train. Mohammad Rizwan and his opening partner Shan Masood came to the crease with a little caution because of the dew factor. Rizwan had allowed Masood to take the driving seat at the beginning of the innings as he started to get things going in the right way with a well-made 26 runs in 18 deliveries.

The partnership between Maqsood and Rizwan was going well till the 15^th over as they had made 101 runs till then with a run-a-ball strategy not stressing over the target. It was at this moment that the King’s bowler Nabi picked up two quick wickets to slow down their chase. However, the Sultans remained unfazed and completed the chase with Rizwan completing his half-century as well.