Momin, Phillippe shine as Sultans beat United to take winning start

LAHORE: Spinner Momin Qamar’s mesmerising bowling backed by Josh Phillippe’s attacking half-century and captain Ashton Turner’s quickfire knock helped Multan Sultans start their HBL Pakistan Super League 11 campaign with a five-wicket victory over Islamabad United here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday.

Left-arm wrist spinner Momin, who was named man-of-the-match, picked up three wickets for 24 runs off three overs to check the advance of United who totalled 171-8 off the stipulated overs while Phillippe’s 55 off 35 balls and Turner’s 43 not out later proved very timely inputs for Sultans who achieved their target comfortably in 18.4 overs under lights.

After losing Sahibzada Farhan (two) who was caught by Faheem Ashraf off slow left-arm orthodox spinner Imad Wasim in the third over with 16 runs on the board, fellow opener Steven Smith (31 off 23) and Phillippe steered them to 49-1 in powerplay. Phillippe struck five fours and a brace of sixes.

Though Sultans lost the wickets of Smith, who was nicely caught at mid-off by captain Shadab Khan off pacer Salman Irshad in the eighth over, and Shan Masood (six) in the next over bowled by Shadab to slump to 70-3, they did not lose the momentum led by Phillippe.

Phillippe and Turner, who struck three fours and a six in his 28-ball innings, added a crucial 61 runs to steer Sultans to safety before the former was trapped in front by Shadab in the 15th over to leave Sultans at 131-4.

However, Turner and Arafat Minhas (25 off 11, four fours and a six) made sure their team remain on track. And though Arafat was caught by Mark Chapman on the edge of the circle at mid-off off Salman Irshad in the 18th over with the total at 162, the job by then had almost been completed.

Shadab and Salman Irshad earned two wickets each for 36 and 28 runs, respectively while Imad snared one wicket for 31. Fast bowler Salman Mirza remained quite expensive with 0-49 in three overs.

Earlier after being invited to bat first, Islamabad United failed to post a commanding total after getting a decent start from openers Devon Conway and Sameer Minhas.

Conway and Sameer put on a 48-run stand in powerplay before paceman Peter Siddle sent the former back to the dugout in the sixth over.

Conway made 26 off 23 with the aid of three fours and a six.

When wicket-keeper/batter Andries Gous (11) was stumped by Phillippe off slow left-arm orthodox spinner Arafat in the ninth over, the scoreboard read 69-2 while Sameer (28 off 21) after belting a four and a brace of sixes became the victim of Momin to further restrict United to 75-3 in the 10th over.

Shadab (four) was cleaned up by a Momin wrong-un in the 12th over to restrain United to 103-4.

Southpaw Mark Chapman (40 off 21, three fours and two sixes) at this stage stood up to the challenge making sure his team post a decent total. But when the New Zealander skied a Mohammad Nawaz delivery only to be gleefully grabbed by Smith at long-on, it badly hurt United at a crucial stage. From 130-5 in 15 overs, they could not post a total that could challenge the Sultans.

Other than Faheem Ashraf’s 17-ball 26 featuring three fours and a six, no batter made a worthy contribution — including Haider Ali (13) and Imad (eight) — as United succeeded in getting only 41 runs off their last five overs.

Haider was dismissed by Momin while the scalps of Imad and Faheem, the last man to be dismissed on the very final ball of the innings, were claimed by pacer Mohammad Wasim.

Momin took 3-24 off three overs, Wasim picked up 2-42 and Siddle registered 1-29 who were backed well by Nawaz (1-32 in three overs) and Arafat (1-16 in two overs).

Scoreboard

ISLAMABAD UNITED:

Devon Conway c Wasim b Siddle26

Sameer Minhas c Wasim b Momin28

Andries Gous st Philippe b Arafat11

Mark Chapman c Smith b Nawaz40

Shadab Khan b Momin4

Haider Ali c Smith b Momin13

Faheem Ashraf c Smith b Wasim26

Imad Wasim c Shan b Wasim8

Salman Mirza not out3

EXTRAS (LB 6, W 6)12

TOTAL (for eight wickets, 20 overs)171

DID NOT BAT: Richard Gleeson, Salman Irshad

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-48 (Conway), 2-69 (Gous), 3-75 (Sameer), 4-103 (Shadab), 5-130 (Chapman), 6-130 (Haider), 7-160 (Imad), 8-171 (Faheem)

BOWLING: Shehzad 3-0-18-0 (1w), Nawaz 3-0-32-1 (1w), Siddle 4-0-29-1, Wasim 4-0-42-2 (4w), Arafat 2-0-16-1, Momin 3-0-24-3, Turner 1-0-4-0

MULTAN SULTANS:

Sahibzada Farhan c Faheem b Imad2

Steven Smith c Shadab b Salman31

Josh Philippe lbw b Shadab55

Shan Masood c Salman b Shadab6

Ashton Turner not out43

Arafat Minhas c Chapman b Salman25

Mohammad Nawaz not out7

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-1, W-3)6

TOTAL (for five wickets, 18.4 overs)175

DID NOT BAT: Peter Siddle, Mohammad Wasim, Shehzad Gul, Momin Qamar

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16 (Sahibzada), 2-61 (Smith), 3-70 (Shan), 4-131 (Philippe), 5-162 (Arafat)

BOWLING: Imad 4-0-31-1, Mirza 3-0-49-0 (1w), Gleeson 3.4-0-28-0 (1w), Salman 4-0-28-2, Shadab 4-0-36-2 (1w)

RESULT: Multan Sultans won by five wickets.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Momin Qamar

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2026

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