The first T20 cricket match of the Pakistan Super League 2021 was played between Karachi Kings and Quetta Gladiators at the National Stadium, Karachi on 20 Feb 2021. Karachi won the toss and invited the opposition to bat first. Tom Banton and Sarfaraz Ahmed, the captain of the Gladiators, came on the crease. The new ball was handed over to Imad Wasim to open the attack.
Gladiators did not get a good start and lost their first wicket of Tom Banton in the very first over. Imad Wasim bowled very well and got the first breakthrough for Karachi. After the dismissal, Chris Gayle came to join Sarfaraz. Quetta needed a partnership but Karachi’s bowlers did not allow them to settle down and wickets were falling at regular intervals. At the end of the first mandatory Powerplay, Quetta had made 49 runs at the loss of 2 wickets. Then no batsmen could stay longer on crease except Gayle, who made 39 runs from 24 balls, and the whole team bowled out at 121 runs in 18.2 overs. Karachi Kings bowlers did an excellent job and Arshad Iqbal was the most successful bowler with 3 wickets for kings in the match. Karachi needed 122 runs from 120 balls to win the match.
Sharjeel Khan and Babar Azam were sent to chase the target and Mohammad Hasnain got the new ball. Kings also lost some early wickets but maintained the run-rate and did not come under pressure. 46 runs of Joe Clarke with a strike rate of 200 helped the Kings to achieve the target. Karachi easily got the target of 122 runs in only 13.5 overs. That was a nice start for the defending champions in the sixth edition on PSL.
Karachi Kings won the 1st match of PSL 2021 by 7 wickets with 37 balls remaining. Arshad Iqbal was the Man of the Match for his brilliant bowling performance.