Sharjeel Khan hits hundred as Islamabad United set up PSL final with Quetta Gladiators

Story of the match

The final that the Pakistan Super League (PSL) deserved and the final most fans wanted is not going to happen. Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators were the two best teams through the league stages but they will not be facing each other in Tuesday’s final.

Islamabad United have spoilt that party, though if the cost of spoiling is watching Sharjeel Khan bat as he did in Sunday evening’s third qualifying final, then spoil all night long.

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Peshawar were, in so many ways, the people’s franchise in this league. They had, arguably, the most fervent support. They had a slick marketing campaign and easily the best team songs (do check out the Peshawar Zalmi rap). The owner Javed Afridi is a swiftly rising figure in Pakistan cricket and a frighteningly ambitious one.

He, and the franchise, have plans that stretch far beyond just the cricket field. Their captain Shahid Afridi is one of the league’s biggest stars. They have Pakistan’s premier express fast bowler in the side. And they have choked horrendously once the group stage was over.

The narrow loss to Quetta Gladiators in the first play-off shattered them and not at any stage were they in the game against Islamabad. Sharjeel, no stranger to the club scene around these parts, gave the tournament a much-needed first hundred and it was an innings worthy of the occasion.

Turning point

There was not really one turning point, unless you count the entire Sharjeel innings as a turning point in itself. Perhaps had Kamran Akmal held on to a leg-side chance from Khalid Latif, just maybe the momentum could have stalled and kept the score manageable. That would also have given Shaun Tait a much-deserved hat-trick.

Would it really have made much of a difference? It seems unlikely. Had Akmal hung around a little longer with the bat, perhaps they could have scared Islamabad. But no; once Sharjeel had announced his intentions, there was only one way this match was going.

Player of the match

There is only one candidate. The first hundred of the PSL was an outstanding innings, an innings of a man who found himself in the zone one night and took full, glorious toll.

There were all sorts of contenders for the best shot; one Lara-esque pick-up off his hips for six over square leg was delicious. There was an outrageous flicked ramp over third man off Tait for six, in an over with two wickets.

But the pick was the shot he played the ball before, a dinky little dab to a yorker down to the third man boundary. It was the shot of a man who could do no wrong, the shot of a man who made a 50-ball ton.

He was left out of Pakistan’s World Twenty20 squad but against the man who will captain Pakistan in India, he sent the most emphatic reminder possible. Do not be surprised if he is back in conversation to make that event.

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The National verdict

Islamabad have slipped through the first part of this tournament a little under the radar. They had a neither-here-nor-there early campaign, winning as many as they lost.

But shrewd recruitments at the draft meant they were always going to be a side to keep an eye on. And now, suddenly, four comfortable wins in a row, they are coming good, peaking at just the right time.

osamiuddin@thenational.ae

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