LAHORE: Quetta Gladiators skipper Saud Shakeel improved after their 6-wicket loss to Multan Sultans in Pakistan Super League (PSL) 13th match at Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday.
The previous edition’s runners-up have struggled to get going in the ongoing eight-team tournament so far, suffering three defeats in their four games, which has relegated them to sixth place on the points table.
Batting first in their fourth over, the Gladiators’ batting unit struggled against the spin-heavy Sultans’ bowling attack and managed to amass 166/7 in their 20 overs despite South’s half-century.
Nawaz sparked the Sultans’ bowling with 3/30 from his four overs, while Arafat Minhas claimed two scalps to force the Gladiators to settle for a low score despite a late blitz from Bevon Jacobs.
Reflecting on his side’s performance in the recently concluded tournament, Gladiators skipper South admitted that the opposition “clearly noticed” their struggle against spin.
One of the Gladiators’ recurring problems has been their tendency to lose wickets in clusters, and their captain South has identified this as a significant area of concern, insisting they must address it in order to accumulate a competitive total.
“Teams have clearly noticed that they can attack us with spin and we have seen them consistently bring their spinners against us,” South said in the post-match briefing.
“Unfortunately, we lost early wickets again today, which forced us to play a catch-up game. Losing wickets in bunches is a significant concern for us now and we need to address and stop that if we want to post competitive totals,” he added.
The Gladiators were further rocked by an untimely injury to their fast-bowling all-rounder Ahmed Daniel after registering a low toss on the batting-friendly surface of the Gaddafi Stadium.
South referred to Daniel’s injury as a big blow to his team, insisting that it had robbed him of the luxury of extra bowling options.
“It’s a big blow if one of your key bowlers goes out early. It forces you to operate with just five bowlers and takes away the luxury of extra options or all-rounders to fall back on,” Saud said.
“Other teams plan for those situations; they’ve been able to attack our pacers while playing the spinners more relaxed, knowing our resources are stretched thin,” he concluded.
After an underwhelming start to their PSL 11 campaign here, the Gladiators will take on winless Rawalpindis in the Karachi leg on Friday at the iconic National Bank Stadium.