Shadab leads Islamabad United's victory march

Islamabad United continued their victory march in PSL 2025, securing their fourth straight win of the season, beating Karachi Kings by six wickets at the National Stadium on Sunday. The comfortable win was orchestrated by skipper Shadab Khan, who returned the best figures with the ball (2-17) before top-scoring with the bat (47) to aid the visitors over the line with 17 balls to spare.

Put in to bat, Kings lost the wickets of David Warner and James Vince cheaply before Tim Seifert and Saad Baig steadied the innings briefly. Seifert, in particular, struggled to get going and managed to score only one boundary in his 37-ball stay before offering a return catch to Imad Wasim.

On a slowish Karachi wicket where the ball was keeping low, run-making remained difficult for most batters. In their bid to play across the line, they kept losing wickets, and by the end of the 18th over, Kings had crawled their way to 102 for 7. Even as there wasn't any movement on offer for the pacers, Jason Holder and Naseem Shah also chipped in with a brace.

It was eventually a late blitz by Abbas Afridi, who smoked three sixes and a boundary that propelled the hosts to 128 for 7, a total which Warner believed was 20 runs short of being competitive.

United had it slightly easier in the run-chase, largely courtesy Sahibzada Farhan's early blitz. The opener smashed three successive boundaries in the second over of the chase, off Hasan Ali, to give United innings some early momentum.

Even as Hasan returned to strike twice in quick succession, Farhan's 18-ball 30 was later well capitalised on by Azam Khan and Shadab. The duo stitched a 65-run stand for the third wicket without taking any undue risks. By then, they had assessed the conditions well, and with a low target to chase, Kings struggled to snatch back the momentum.

The duo kept the pace of the innings strong, with a regular flow of boundaries. They waited for the poor deliveries to cash in, with Shadab even smoking two sixes in consecutive overs by Khushdil Shah and Aamer Jamal.

Both batters departed once the team had crossed the 100-run mark, but it was too late by then for Kings to stage a comeback.

Brief Scores: Karachi Kings 128/7 in 20 overs (Tim Seifert 30, Abbas Afridi 24*; Shadab Khan 2-17, Naseem Shah 2-29) lost to Islamabad United 129/4 in 17.1 overs (Shadab Khan 47, Azam Khan 31; Hasan Ali 2-28) by 7 wickets