Gladiators go to the top after Hasan Nawaz stars in tense win over United

A compelling PSL 2025 game with drama of epic proportions, where both teams slipped, recovered, and then stumbled again, kept fans on the edge of their seats before Quetta Gladiators held their nerve and seized a thrilling win over Islamabad United, though not without the help of three regulation dropped catches in the final over. Hasan Nawaz kept his cool to eventually eke out the win in the nail-biting finale.

After deciding to bowl first, Gladiators kept a lid on the scoring and restricted United to a middling 157 for 9. That said, they allowed a recovery in the last phase of the innings after having them at 91 for 6 at the end of the 13th over. Faheem Ashraf's four-wicket haul cut through the middle-order, and the floodgates were opened thereafter.

United, who made six changes to the side and, despite losing three in a row now, need only one win to get into the playoffs, found a hero in Mohammad Nawaz, who added 49 to the board in a sparkling rearguard act, bringing the game to life in the process. And that gave the United bowlers something to play with.

Gladiators started off with a flier as Finn Allen slammed a barrage of boundaries in the powerplay, but his ebullience only lasted 13 balls, as he was beaten by Naseem Shah's pace amid a penetrative opening burst. Saud Shakeel started brightly, but his stay at the crease was cut short as he slashed one straight to point in the third over. That's when Rilee Rossouw injected urgency before a mix-up with Hasan in the tenth over sent the panic alarms ringing in the Gladiators camp, and the chase started to crumble.

The 52-run stand put Gladiators in a good situation, but not for long. Mark Chapman was dismissed on two, and United's belief grew while the tension was palpable in the field and it seemed a chaotic implosion was brewing.

Hasan, however, proved to be a thorn in their path as he showed off his temperament and range with an unbeaten 64 in 41 balls. He wasn't in a rush and played sensibly, finding a balance between aggression and calm manoeuvring of the ball into the gaps, thereby taking the game right down to the wire with some able support from Mohammad Wasim.

The game kept swinging like a pendulum, but ultimately the fielding lapses in the final over, bowled by Muhammad Shahzad, turned the tide in Gladiators' favour.

Hasan got two lives in the first two balls, first shelled by Shahzad off his own bowling, and then by Salman Irshad at short third. On the third delivery, he clubbed a six over long-off and then there was another dropped chance as the keeper and deep third blocked each other's views and spilt a skier even as the batters added two more runs.

Then, on the penultimate delivery, Hasan finished the game by heaving a six over backward square. With the win, Gladiators displaced United from the top spot on the points table and gave a boost to their net run-rate, while United, after having sped to five wins consecutively, have suffered three defeats on the bounce now.