Sultans withstand late charge to deny Karachi Kings

Multan Sultans withstood a late charge from Karachi Kings to eke out a 11-run victory and return to winning ways. This was the Sultans' fifth win in PSL 2026, whereas the Kings suffered their fourth loss of the tournament.

Opting to bowl first, Kings were buoyed by the big wicket of Steve Smith for a duck in the second over of the contest. A lacklustre Powerplay turned terrific for the batting side when Josh Philippe and Awais Zafar tonked 25 runs off an Abbas Afridi over, followed by a couple of boundaries in the final over of the Powerplay. Only 33 came in the first four overs of the fielding restrictions but 36 came in the next two.

Kings needed Khushdil Shah to come back into the attack and strike again to break the dangerous stand but Shan Masood then piled on more misery. Even when Khushdil came back for a third time to strike again, Masood still smacked him for two sixes to end the over on a high for the batting side.

Sultans had multiple contributors throughout the innings even though none of them kicked on to post a substantial score. With Masood departing for 46 and skipper Ashton Turner struggling, Sultans were aided by some timely boundaries from their lower order to drag the total beyond 200.

Arafat Minhas then cutshort Jason Roy's stay early in the innings just when the Englishman appeared to take off. The Powerplay easily belonged to Sultans as Minhas struck again, to dismiss Salman Agha, which was then followed by another wicket with Peter Siddle opening his tally.

Even though Reeza Hendricks and Moeen Ali steadied the ship, the required rate kept climbing. Moeen, who struggled for timing, finally broke free with two sixes off Siddle but Turner managed to send him back to the pavilion in the very next over. Needing 71 from the final five overs with just five wickets left, the game appeared to be done and dusted for Kings.

However, Afridi and Hasan Ali went on a boundary-hitting spree to cause some flutter in the Sultans' camp. The late assault brought the equation down to a gettable 23 off 12 before Siddle got the dangerman Afridi in the penultimate over to apply the squeeze which eventually helped them clinch the contest.

Brief scores: Multan Sultans 207/7 in 20 overs (Shan Masood 46, Josh Philippe 44; Khushdil Shah 3/35) beat Karachi Kings 196 in 19.4 overs (Reeza Hendricks 49, Abbas Afridi 34; Arafat Minhas 3/32, Peter Siddle 2/28) by 11 runs