Rossouw, Nawaz tons hand United a drubbing

Islamabad United find themselves stuck in a rut after steamrolling opponents at the start of the PSL 2025 with five consecutive wins. As per Salman Ali Agha, injuries and niggles forced them to make wholesale changes and now they have slipped to fourth loss on the bounce at the crucial juncture of the tournament.

After opting to bowl, they were left stunned and out of sorts as Quetta Gladiators cartwheeled their way to a stunning drubbing of United. The victory was orchestrated with the bat. Gladiators posted the highest ever PSL total of 263 for 3 on the back of two eye-catching hundreds by Rilee Rossouw and Hasan Nawaz. In the battle for a top-two finish, they were a rampaging menace on the hapless bowling attack that lacked penetration and discipline.

The pyrotechniques from centurions took the game away after the first half as they swung their bat at almost everything; Rossouw turned on the beast mode from the moment he took guard, while Hasan followed suit and didn't drop his intensity even after losing his partner. He hit Naseem Shah for three sixes in the penultimate over and belted another six and a four in the final over bowled by Ben Dwarshuis, bringing up his century on the last ball of the innings and soaking in applause from the great Sir Vivian Richards and the rest of the crew. The acceleration after the first ten overs was staggering. Gladiators added 160 in the last ten, which took the game away from United. Eventually, United fell short by 109 runs in one of the most one-sided games of this season.

The confidence Nawaz gained in the last cliffhanger against the same opposition flowed into tonight's game. There was no second-guessing and a lot more resolve, conviction, decisiveness and authority in his shots on a batting-friendly surface.

A target of 264 was always going to be a daunting task, especially with veteran pacer Mohammad Amir back in the fold. When Gladiators returned to defend, Amir dismissed Kyle Mayers and Sahibzada Farhan in the first over. Mayers was pinned in front on nought and he didn't bother for a review. Amir showed remarkable control with the new ball and got the better of Agha in the third over, thereby making an impact right away after a few absences and showing his coveted knack of picking wickets upfront yet again.

The game was done and dusted in the powerplay with little to no resistance thereon as wickets continued to tumble and United were staring into the abyss with 68 for 8 at the end of the ninth over. The ripping spin of Abrar Ahmed continued to weave magic; he denied any late order resistance by outsmarting Haider Ali and soon outsmarted Jason Holder, ending his quota with 2 for 17. Azam Khan was sloppy with the glovework and couldn't make any substantial impact with the bat, slicing a wide short delivery to Mohammad Wasim Jr., who was livewire in the field and took three superb catches. That's when Imad Wasim and Dwarshuis decided to accept the inevitable and played to reduce the blow to their team's net run rate and defeat margin.

Gladiators have given a massive boost to their net run rate and confirmed top spot, while United slipped to third with a must-win game scenario for their upcoming last group fixture on May 10 against Karachi Kings.