Faheem's all-round show leads Gladiators into final

Finn Allen, Dinesh Chandimal, Avishka Fernando, and Faheem Ashraf crashed significant scores at a strike rate of better than 150. And when these four batters had propelled Quetta Gladiators to a total of 209 for 6, their bowlers locked the game down through the middle overs, sending Islamabad United eventually to 179 all out.

Gladiators advance to the final, deservedly. Not only have they won this match by a significant margin, they had also easily topped the league ahead of the playoffs, winning seven of their ten matches. United now have to face the winner of Thursday night's eliminator - between Karachi Kings and Lahore Qalandars - in Qualifier 2.

If you want one reason why Gladiators bossed this game, it is the period between overs 11.6 and 19.5, when Chandimal and Ashraf were at the crease. Chandimal clobbered 48 not out off 28 balls, Ashraf hit 45 off 23, and the pair (to use a Gen Z term) "twinned" on the boundary count - hitting three sixes and four fours apiece. Their partnership was worth 95 runs off 48 balls.

Chandimal, as usual, was strong on the leg side, that powerful bottom hand coming into play, though he also sliced a boundary through backward point when United had stacked the off side and James Neesham was attempting to bowl wide yorkers.

Ashraf was just as impressive. He was strong on the leg side too, but when bowlers attempted to go full and wide, he crashed them over the cover region as well.

There were a few moments in which it seemed not impossible that United could run down a target of 210. These came almost exclusively during the first 14 overs. First, Sahibzada Farhan and Rassie van der Dussen hit 71 off 45 balls together. Farhan went on to make 52 off 35 - the highest individual score of the game and his sixth T20 half-century.

No. 4 batter Salman Agha then produced a little gem too, scything 44 off 26, but found little support at the other end. When he departed, with 16 balls to go and 42 runs still to get, there were no more viable paths to victory for United.

Mohammad Amir and Ashraf took two wickets apiece, but it was offspinner Usman Tariq who inflicted the more telling blows. His first wicket - that of Farhan - was slightly lucky. Farhan had merely mis-hit a leg side full toss but found Khawaja Nafay running in from the deep.

But then there was also the wicket of Salman, which was down to a piece of utilitarian T20 bowling, going fast and wide outside off stump to a batter trying to smash to leg, resulting in a top edge gobbled up at long-on. To cap it off, he also had Naseem Shah caught in the deep. He finished with 3 for 32, which were his figures in his previous game as well.

He outshone both Ashraf and Abrar Ahmed, who are now both equal second on the tournament wicket-takers' list, with 16 apiece.