DUBAI  - Dwayne Bravo and Sohail Tanvir helped Quetta Gladiators thump sorry Multan Sultans by 6 wickets in must win match for Sultan in the Pakistan Super League-4 encounter here at Dubai Stadium on late Friday night.

It was wonderful night in Dubai, as for the first time, it was highly sizable crowd present at the venue, which gave players a sigh of relief, as for the last several matches, hardly handful of spectators were witnessed in the matches.

Gladiators chasing a modest target of 123 runs for victory achieved the target in 19 overs losing 4 wickets. It was once again Shane Watson, who started in highly aggressive mood and scored 33 runs while Rilley Rossouw top scored with 35.

It was left arm fast bowler Sohail and West Indian all-rounder Bravo who destroyed Sultans batting by grabbing three wickets apiece conceding 19 runs each. Left arm spinner Muhammad Nawaz also chipped in with 2 for 32 and fast bowler M Husnain 1 for 20. The win means as Gladiators put a brake to consecutive losses they had to suffer in previous two matches. With the victory, Gladiators moved to second place in the points table, overtaking current champions, Islamabad United, while Peshawar Zalmi climbed back to the top of the points table. Multan Sultans after the loss were eliminated from the last four race.

Gladiators should have won the match in not more than 15 overs but batsmen consumed too many precious deliveries. Man in form Umar Akmal failed to open his account. Ahmed Shahzad remained unbeaten at 28 but he must consider himself highly fortunate as he was out on a no-ball. Shahid Afridi grabbed 2 for 18 and rookie fast bowler M Ilyas took 1 for 14. Bravo was named player of the match.

It was once again, highly low-scoring game as Sarfraz Ahmed won the toss and opted to field first, a trend which every captain had adopted in the night matches. The highly poor quality pitches are the major factor as batsmen struggle to score runs and hammer lusty blows, which crowd wants to see from the top stars. It was time and again mentioned that curator failed to prepare pitches in such short time, which resulted in low-scoring matches but the PCB paid no heed. It is obvious that ground staff can’t prepare same pitch for two matches in such short span of time and ground staff should prepare two separate pitches to ensure crowd get entertainment and high-scoring matches. When the first match is being played on the pitch, it is fresh and full of runs but after the first match, pitch start to behave odd, which resulted in continuously low-scoring second matches.

The PSL can’t get same hype until and unless it is being played on Pakistani grounds, which will guarantee massive crowds, spending huge national amount on empty stadiums will serve no purpose to cricket nor PCB. Ehsan Mani and his team must come up with different plans to make PSL successful as it is clearly evident that in the absence of Najam Sethi, PSL-4 is a flop as PCB failed to chalk out plans nor they properly marketed the brand, which was witnessed in the first three editions. The highly pathetic opening ceremony was enough to open the eyes of Mani but he never woke up and relied on used bullets, who are enjoying joy-ride and spending national wealth with both hands.

Saturday is the rest day in PSL-4 and matches will be moved to Abu Dhabi Stadium before the final round that would be played in Pakistan. Zalmi, Gladiators and United had already booked seats for Pakistan. The 4th and last place is up for grasp and the competition is between Karachi Kings and Lahore Qalandars to grab the last place on offer. Now each team had to play one last time against each other before they travel to Pakistan for 8 matches including the grand final at National Stadium, Karachi.

 Scorecard

MULTAN SULTANS:
Umar Siddiq c Watson b Hasnain 14
J Vince b Nawaz 9
J Charles lbw b Nawaz 46
T Moores b Bravo 9
Shoaib Malik c Nawaz b Bravo 21
D Christian run out 2
Shahid Afridi c Ahsan b Bravo 4
Nauman Ali c Rossouw b Tanvir 3
M Ilyas c Bravo b Tanvir 2
M Irfan b Tanvir 0
M Abbas not out 1
EXTRAS: (b4, lb2, w4) 10
TOTAL: (all out; 20 overs) 121
FOW: 1-12, 2-62, 3-75, 4-98, 5-100, 6-112, 7-115, 8-120, 9-120, 10-121
BOWLING: Sohail Tanvir 4-0-19-3, Mohammad Nawaz 4-0-32-2, Mohammad Hasnain 4-0-20-1, D Bravo 4-0-19-3, Fawad Ahmed 4-0-25-0
QUETTA GLADIATORS:
S Watson b Afridi 33
Ahsan Ali b Afridi 17
Ahmed Shehzad not out 28
R Rossouw run ou 35
Umar Akmal c sub b M Ilyas 0
D Bravo not out 2
EXTRAS: (lb4, nb1, w2) 7
TOTAL: (4 wkts; 19 overs) 122
FOW: 1-49, 2-55, 3-103, 4-106
BOWLING: M Abbas 4-0-33-0, M Irfan 1-0-6-0, Nauman Ali 4-0-25-0, Shahid Afridi 4-0-18-2, Shoaib Malik 4-0-22-0, M Ilyas 2-0-14-1
TOSS: Quetta Gladiators
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Dwayne Bravo
UMPIRES: Richard Illingworth, Ahsan Raza
TV UMPIRE: Rashid Riaz
MATCH REFEREE: Roshan Mahanama