Englishman Joe Clarke made an impressive debut, helping his team Karachi Kings march to victory in the inaugural game of Pakistan Super League’s sixth season at the National Stadium in Karachi. Clarke’s 23 ball 46 was instrumental in taking Babar Azam’s men to a short target of 122.
Quetta started their defence of the small total in a great manner with Mohammad Hasnain getting out Sharjeel Khan in the very first over. Clarke, 24, wasn’t given much free space either until the fourth over. After the end of the third over, Karachi were struggling at 12-1. But it was at this time that Clarke loosened up, hitting Naseem Shah for 19 runs in an over. In the very next over, the Shrewsbury born hit Afghan leggie, Qais Ahmed, for 27 runs and ended all hopes of a Quetta fight back.
However, the free run of the English batsman didn’t last long as he picked out Azam Khan at the long leg boundary off a Mohammad Shinwari delivery. Mohammad Nabi, who joined skipper Babar Azam after Clarke’ fall then made sure that no more hiccups were put in the chase even as Azam got out. Nabi scored an unbeaten 14 ball 30 runs.
Hasnain was the pick of the bowlers for Quetta, making the ball talk and being able to get the ball to nip back in for left-hander and move away for the right-handers at ease. It was with one of the outswingers that he got Babar to nick it and get caught behind the stumps brilliantly by Quetta skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed. But before getting out, Babar became the highest ever run-getter in the history of PSL, overtaking Kamarna Akmal. He now has 1540 runs in the league.
Earlier in the evening, Karachi after winning the toss put Quetta to bat first. Quetta got to the worst possible start as they lost both their main men in Sarfaraz and Tom Banton. Needing a partnership, the team depended on veteran hitter Chris Gayle to deliver, but he failed once again, although he was still the highest run-getter with 39 runs. Medium fast bowler Arshad Iqbal was the highest wicket-taker for Karachi with three scalps. Among others, Waqas Maqsood took two wickets while rest of all the bowlers who bowled also too at least one wicket.