Hyderabad Kingsmen 214 for 6 (Usman 101, Labuschagne 61, Siddle 3-39) beat Multan Sultans 213 for 7 (Smith 106, Farhan 66, Akif 3-30) by 4 wickets
It's not often that Usman Khan gets the better of Steven Smith, but this, in essence was a contest boiled down to two men with blitzkrieg hundreds in a batting run-off against each other. In the end, Hyderabad Kingsmen's Usman's 44-ball hundred beat Multan Sultans's Smith's 47-ball century as the Kingsmen ran down the second highest chase of the PSL this year. A six of the third ball of the 20th over in a priceless cameo from Hassan Khan secured a glorious win as they chased 214 and put themselves into the playoff positions as the business end of the league stage awaits.
The contest should probably have been over in Sultans' favour 14 overs earlier, when Mohammad Ismail's back to back dismissals were followed up by a fateful non-review against Usman Khan off his first ball. Going upstairs would have sent him back for a golden duck, and as it was, the error in judgment could not have proved costlier. Over the course of the following 12 overs, he put a dazzling clinic of muscular power hitting, smashing a season-high 10 sixes in his innings to get to three figures in a match-winning partnership alongside his captain Marnus Labuschagne, whose own 41-ball 61 will now become an underappreciated footnote in this victory.
And yet, Sultans' still found a way to come back, to the extent that, with Usman's dismissal, they had suddenly propelled themselves to favourites once again. Thanks to a spectacular 18th over from the ageless Peter Siddle, the match now demanded 32 runs off 13 balls from the Kingsmen as toll for two points, with the final four wickets the only resources with which to conjure them up.
But Irfan Khan, and particularly Hassan, rose majestically to that challenge. The final ball of the 18th went for six, as did the first of the 19th to swing the equation back the Kingsmen way. All told, the last ten balls of the contest produced one four and four sixes, the last one a fatal swipe off a poorly disguised slower ball from Muhammad Ismail that Hassan sent flatly into the midwicket stands.
All of that drama belied the dominant hold the Sultans maintained over this game for the best part of the first 26 overs. The batting display was almost flawless, bar a slightly sedate start, with Smith treating the contest to one of his best T20 knocks. His Australian teammate Labuschagne rotated the bowlers, even bringing himself on for one, feverishly, but all the difference that made was which boundary Smith dispatched them to. The most destructive example of his near invincibility came against the hapless Hunain Shah, perhaps Kingsmen's best bowler this season, during a third over where Smith toyed with him to the point of cruelty. All six deliveries went to the fence, with the over yielding 28 runs, and Hunain's own spell 58, an unwanted Kingsmen record. The fifth delivery of that over produced a huge six over cow corner that also brought up Smith's hundred, in an over he began on 77.
One of the many fine margins of the game was Hassan snaring Smith with 20 balls still in the contest to go. Those who followed in his wake were unable to produce the same kind of fireworks, with the innings petering out somewhat. Akif Javed and Hunain swooped in with late wickets, and the last 21 deliveries of the innings produced just 28 to keep the Kingsmen sniffing.
It looked like they might not be sniffing for long when the Sultans ran through their top order, with Ismail running rampant in the Powerplay. Maaz Sadaqat, the woefully out of for Saim Ayub and Kusal Perera all fell to him. That should have been Usman's fate on the hat-trick ball, but no one appeared to hear the nick off his bat through to the keeper. The shots he played for the following hour were heard all right.
