MULTAN, FEB 29 (DNA) : The Multan Sultans defeated the Quetta Gladiators by 30 runs despite Australian Shane Watson’s heroics to bring his team closer to the 200 rund target set by the host team.

Quetta were locked good to take the game down to the wire after the start they gt from openers Jason Roy and Shane Watson. However, the opening partnership was shattered when Bilawal Bhatti dismissed the former on 30 off 27 balls. He was caught in the deep by Moeen Ali as he attempted to slog Bhatti.

Watson continued to lead the onslaught, scoring a half-century as he battered the Multan Sultans’ bowlers for sixes and fours. Ahsan Ali wasn’t able to stick around for long, as he was caught by Vince off a Khushdil Shah delivery, scoring an unimpressive 14 off 16 balls.

After a couple of impressive innings in the tournament, Azam Khan seems to have lost his magic touch as he was caught out off an Imran Tahir delivery, scoring just 6 runs from an equal number of balls.

Tahir claimed his next victim, the dangerous Shane Watson, as he too, like Azam, attempted to hit him for a six but got caught. Watson scored an impressive 80 runs from 41 balls, hammering a staggering seven 4s and an equal number of sixes.

For Sultans, Bhatti was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets, with Tahir helping his team with two crucial wickets.

Earlier, Rilee Rossouw smashed the fastest century of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) as the Sultans posted a mammoth total of 200 for Quetta Gladiators to chase at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

Rossouw smashed six sixes and 10 fours as he raced towards his 44-ball century. Skipper Shan Masood who earlier won the toss and elected to bat first, chipped in with 46 off 32 before he fell victim to Mohammad Hasnain.

For Gladiators Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Sohail Khan, Hasnain and Ben Cutting each picked a wicket.

Both the teams have six points from four games having won three games each.

Playing XI

Multan Sultans: MM Ali, JM Vince, Shan Masood, RR Rossouw, Zeeshan Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Sohail Tanvir, Bilawal Bhatti, Mohammad Ilyas, Mohammad Irfan, Imran Tahir

Quetta Gladiators: JJ Roy, SR Watson, Ahsan Ali, Azam Khan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, BCJ Cutting, Mohammad Nawaz (3), Sohail Khan, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Anwar Ali