Gladiators keep Kingsmen winless to record first victory

LAHORE: Impressive half-centuries by Shamyl Hussain and Hasan Nawaz and Abrar Ahmad’s fine show with the leather guided Quetta Gladiators to a facile 40-run victory over Hyderabad Kingsmen in their HBL Pakistan Super League match here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday.

This was Gladiators’ first victory of the season after they lost their opening game against Kara­chi Kings on Friday while Kings­men suffered their second successive defeat after being routed by defending champions Lahore Qalandars in the PSL 11 opener.

Player-of-the-match Shamyl and Hasan lifted Gladiators to a respectable 174-8 after skipper Saud Shakeel elected to bat first.

Kingsmen crumbled in the chase and were restricted to a paltry 134-8 off 20 overs thanks to mystery spinner Abrar, who snared three wickets for 23 runs. Medium-pacer Ahmad Daniyal also fared well picking up two wickets for just 13 runs.

Kingsmen’s chase got off to a disastrous start as Saim Ayub (eight) departed in the first over after getting caught by wicket-keeper Ben McDermott off pacer Alzarri Joseph.

Saim was followed by fellow opener Maaz Sadaqat, who was caught for nought by Shamyl off Abrar in the second over as the Marnus Labuschagne-led team slumped to 17-2. After losing the openers, Kingsmen never recovered despite fighting cameos by Irfan Khan and Hassan Khan later in the innings.

Usman Khan (14 off 18) nicked the ball to McDermott in the sixth over, giving Abrar his second wicket as Kingsmen ended powerplay at a feeble 37-3. Just two balls after they reached 50 off 8.4 overs, Lab­u­schagne’s brigade lost Saad Ali as he failed to clear the long-on boundary to get caught by Joseph off the bowling of off-spinner Us­m­an Tariq. They were now 51-4.

Labuschagne’s cautious stay of 23 off 21 ended in the next over wh­en he fell to occasional slow left-arm orthodox spinner Saud as Kingsmen descended to 57-5.

Irfan (33 off 25) and Hassan (31 off 19) combined to make an effort as they added 48 runs for the sixth wicket and in the process got past 100 in 14 overs.

McDermott’s superb grab down the leg-side off Ahmed sent Hassan back to the hut as Kings­men required 70 off the final five overs. The tough ask became tougher when Irfan was stumped by McDermott in the 18th over bowled by Abrar as the scoreboard read 129-7.

When Hammad Azam (six) was caught by Hasan at deep mid-wicket off Ahmed’s slower ball in the 19th over, all hopes of Kingsmen ended.

Usman finished with 1-26 while Joseph had 1-39.

Earlier, entertaining knocks by Shamyl (54 off 41 balls) and Hasan (53 off 40) helped Gladiat­ors post a fighting total that pro­ved more than enough in the end.

The loss of two key wickets of Saud (four) and Rilee Rossouw (0), both to pacer Riley Meredith, left Gladiators reeling at 25-2 in the fourth over.

However, a superb 89-run partnership between Shamyl and Has­an, who struck two fours and three sixes, off just 43 balls steadied the innings. They in the process first moved to 45-2 in powerplay and then reached 100 in 11.4 overs.

When Shamyl, who smashed three fours and as many sixes, was caught by Saim at sweeper cover off Meredith, it triggered a mini batting collapse that redu­ced Gladiators from a commanding 114-3 in the 14th over to 128-6 in the 16th as off-spinner Mahe­esh Theekshana trapped Khaw­aja Nafay (six) and McDermott (zero) off successive deliveries in the 15th over and then Hasan’s run-out in the 16th over due to a terrible mix-up with Tom Curran dented Gladiators’ cause further.

Curran contributed a precious 18-ball 31 — laced with three sixes and a four — to give respectability to the total before he and Joseph (zero) were dismissed by pacer Akif Javed in the final over of the innings.

Meredith claimed three wickets for 38 runs, Theekshana took two for 24 while Akif ended with figures of 2-25 in two overs. Has­s­an (0-40) and Labuschagne (0-19 in two overs) remained expensive.

Scoreboard

QUETTA GLADIATORS:

Saud Shakeel c Hammad b Meredith 4

Shamyl Hussain c Saim b Meredith 54

R. Rossouw c Labuschagne b Meredith 0

Hasan Nawaz run out (Saad) 53

Khawaja Nafay lbw b Theekshana 6

B. McDermott lbw b Theekshana 0

T. Curran c Saim b Akif 31

Ahmed Daniyal not out 6

A. Joseph c Hassan b Akif 0

Abrar Ahmed not out 9

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-1, NB-5, W-4) 11

TOTAL (for eight wickets, 20 overs) 174

DID NOT BAT: Usman Tariq

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-21 (Saudl), 2-25 (Rossouw), 3-114 (Shamyl), 4-121 (Nafay), 5-121 (McDermott), 6-128 (Hasan), 7-165 (Curran), 8-165 (Joseph)

BOWLING: Theekshana 4-0-24-2, Meredith 4-0-38-3 (2w, 1nb), Saim 4-0-26-0 (1nb), Akif 2-0-25-2 (1nb), Labuschagne 2-0-19-0 (1w, 1nb), Hassan 4-0-40-0 (1w, 1nb)

HYDERABAD KINGSMEN:

Saim Ayub c McDermott b Joseph 8

Maaz Sadaqat c Shamyl b Abrar 0

M. Labuschagne c Shamyl b Saud 23

Usman Khan c McDermott b Abrar 14

Saad Ali c Joseph b Usman 7

Irfan Khan st McDermott b Abrar 33

Hassan Khan c McDermott b Ahmed 31

Hammad Azam c Hasan b Ahmed 6

M. Theekshana not out 2

R. Meredith not out 3

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-1, W-5) 7

TOTAL (for eight wickets, 20 overs) 134

DID NOT BAT: Akif Javed

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9 (Saim), 2-17 (Maaz), 3-35 (Usman), 4-51 (Saad), 5-57 (Labuschagne), 6-105 (Hassan), 7-129 (Irfan), 8-129 (Hammad)

BOWLING: Joseph 4-0-39-1 (1w), Abrar 4-0-23-3 (1w), Ahmed 4-0-13-2 (1w), Curran 3-0-21-0 (1w), Usman 4-0-26-1 (1w), Saud 1-0-10-1

RESULT: Quetta Gladiators won by 40 runs.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Shamyl Hussain

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2026

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