Khawaja continues Abu Dhabi hot-streak in PSL

Usman Khawaja played a lone hand with another blistering knock at the top of the order in the Pakistan Super League his Islamabad United side now face an elimination final after crashing to defeat.

The Pakistan-born Australian batsman carried on his good form from his T20 century with last week to strike 70 from 40 balls last night, but it was an innings without much in the way of support as Islamabad crashed to 149 all out chasing the Multan Sultans' 5-180 in the qualifier final.

The result sent Multan through to Thursday's PSL final, while Islamabad, who finished top of the table, will tonight face an elimination final against Peshawar Zalmi for the second spot in the final.

Needing 90 off the final 42 balls, Khawaja reached his fifty then took the attack to Multan's Zimbabwe bowler Blessing Muzarabani, smashing him for a six and three successive fours in a 19-run over.

But Khawaja was dismissed the following over, failing to get enough on a pull shot off left-armer Sohail Tanvir as he was caught at deep mid-wicket.

Peshawar then beat the Karachi Kings in nail-biter in last night's second match, with the defending champion Karachi side regretting two dropped catches in the final over, including off the final ball when the scores were tied.

Khawaja's knock of 70 comes just days after the Queensland captain struck an unbeaten 105 off 56 balls in a 15-run win against Peshawar last Thursday.

In that knock, Khawaja began the final over on 84 and went on to reach his third T20 century from the first three balls with a four followed by two successive sixes, ending his innings with 13 fours and three sixes.

Khawaja now has 245 runs from six innings at 61.25 and a strike rate of 154.08 opening the batting in Abu Dhabi, a venue that seems likely to host some of the T20 World Cup action later this year.

He and Islamabad teammate Fawad Ahmed remain the only Australians still active in the PSL from the eight players that went to the UAE for the tournament's restart.

Hobart Hurricanes power-hitter Tim David, who has represented Singapore in international cricket, enhanced his growing reputation with a strike-rate of 166.66 for his 180 runs, including 12 sixes and 11 fours.

His BBL teammate James Faulkner finished with 13 wickets from six games at an impressive economy of 6.50 having been deployed as a new-ball bowler on pitches that suited his pace-off skiddy style, while he also crashed 90 runs at 169.81 in limited opportunities with the bat.

Main image courtesy PCB