PSL 2017, Match 7 Review: Sam Billings leads Islamabad United to crucial win

At the moment, it might seem as though the Islamabad United are in a spot of bother with the ongoing scandal, but Sam Billings, an Englishman ensured that this was not the case, at least on the night of the encounter as he slammed an impressive 78 and also remained unbeaten on the day to ensure that they secured a hard-fought win over the Quetta Gladiators. This win witnessed the United move up the table and strong favourites to reach the semi-finals of the Pakistan Super League.

Batting first, the Gladiators got off to a decent start. This start was clearly eclipsed by the manner in which Asad Shafiq and his opening partner Ahmed Shehzad batted. However, once Shehzad was dismissed a few deliveries before the end of the powerplay, it was quite clear that the fact of the matter was that the others could not muster the start given to them by their openers into anything productive.

Rilee Rossouw and Kevin Pietersen perished quite early on in the innings. It would take a superhuman effort from Mahmudullah, the Bangladeshi batsman fresh from the Indian tour to ensure that the Gladiators had something to play with at the very least. He slammed 29 and remained unbeaten in his crusade as he went ahead and ensured that the score was somewhere in and around the par score of 148.

Similar to the Quetta innings, the United got off to an impressive start on the day as Sam Billings went ahead and ensured that the start was something that laid the foundation for the innings. In spite of the loss of the wicket of Dwayne Smith to an incredibly risky shot, it was Billings who was indeed in hot pursuit on the day as he went ahead and ensured that there was something despite the loss of the wickets.

Also read – Mitchell Johnson fires the warning shots for Aussie pacers

While Brad Haddin and Misbah-ul-Haq could not make their contributions count, it was Shane Watson who joined in with Billings and struck an impressive 36, something that brought the Islamabad-based franchise ever so close to securing a win. In spite of a couple of wickets falling towards the end, it was Billings who would ensure that the win was indeed secured at the end with 5 deliveries to spare. He was also named as the undisputed man of the match for what was an incredible performance with the bat.

Brief Scores:

Quetta Gladiators: 148/6 in 20 overs (A Shafiq 45; S Watson 2/22)

Islamabad United: 149/5 in 19.1 overs (S Billings 78*; M Nawaz 2/18)