Multan’s crop of Australians enjoyed their first outing of the new PSL season
Steve Smith’s rosy start to the Pakistan Super League has continued with his half-century guiding Multans Sultans to a comfortable win over Quetta Gladiators in Lahore.
Chasing 167, Smith struck 53 from 35 balls to power the Sultans’ reply, which they finished off with six wickets in hand and 15 balls remaining.
Multans opening combo, Smith and Pakistan international Sahibzada Farhan (32 off 14), smoked 71 runs in the first five overs to take the sting out of the chase. Smith hit England’s Tom Curran for four fours in the third over of the reply.
With 30 runs to get, Smith fell victim to a spectacular piece of fielding from South African Rilee Rossouw who took a running grab and flicked the ball 20 metres to teammate Saqib Khan before he tumbled over the boundary cushion.
Earlier, Quetta made an under-apr 7-166 thanks to a strong showing from the Sultans spinners.
Captain Ashton Turner gave himself the new ball and completed three overs, taking 1-16, while fellow tweakers Mohammad Nawaz (3-30) and Arafat Minhas (2-14) were excellent as well.
“It’s the first time this tournament we’ve got the bowling right,” Peter Siddle said after the victory, that took the Sultans to the top of the table after four games.
“Our man, Smitty, another good innings (from him). He’ll probably say that he was disappointed that he didn’t go on and finish it off but he and Farhan, their opening partnership at the moment is great viewing for us.”
Smith has 139 runs in his four innings to date, which sits him in fourth place on the run-getters list. His skipper Turner is eighth with 103 runs while Karachi Kings captain David Warner, who has played three games, is the next-best Aussie with 93 runs.
