Twitter Reactions: Amad Butt and Luke Ronchi set the tone for Islamabad's first win of the season
The wicketkeeper-batsman played some great shots all around the ground but got out when his team was just two runs short of a win.
After a comprehensive performance in their first game, the Multan Sultans were completely outdone in their second. Islamabad United registered a brilliant victory in this encounter. With this performance, they not only improved their NRR but also added two important points to their tally. Amad Butt with the ball and Luke Ronchi with the bat were the stars and came up with match-winning performances. For his quickfire 74, the latter was named the ‘Man of the Match.’
Teams opting to bat second has been a norm this season and it was no different this time either. Multan had to bat first since they lost the toss. At no stage of their innings, it seemed as if they fell behind in terms of the run rate. However, it was the wickets which they failed to keep in hand. Thus, they couldn’t accelerate towards the end and had to settle for a meager total on the board.
Opener James Vince played a good hand and mustered 42 runs from 31 balls. But the best knock came from the wicket-keeper batsman Zeeshan Ashraf. He raced his way to 50 from only 29 balls in a knock that included 4 fours and 3 sixes. The reaming batsmen couldn’t deliver as per the expectations and played rather slowly as the team put up 164/8 on the board in 20 overs. Amad Butt picked up four wickets and gave away 27 runs in his 4 overs.
Fifties for Luke Ronchi and Colin Munro in the chase
In the early part of the chase, it was New Zealand‘s Colin Munro who was the aggressor. He went after the bowlers and gave them no respite whatsoever. It was in the 10th over that he got out in the bowling of Shahid Afridi for 50 runs. Luke Ronchi, however, maintained the intensity in the chase and built another good partnership with Dawid Malan.
The wicketkeeper-batsman played some great shots all around the ground but got out when his team was just two runs short of a win. He scored 74 runs from 45 balls before he got out. Malan remained unbeaten on 35 off 21 deliveries as Islamabad United finished the chase in 16.4 overs.
Here is how Twitterati reacted:
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