PSL 2026 – Hunain Shah on final over heroics – ‘We had one plan, bowl six yorkers’

“We had to go in with one plan, send down six yorkers,” Hunain said at the post-match press conference after Kingsmen defeated Islamabad United by two runs. “We kept it simple. We had to save six runs. We just had to adjust the line of the yorker, but it had to be a yorker.”

It doesn’t matter what the plan is, Hunain has been tasked with doing something unprecedented. United needed six to win the Eliminator in the last over; never in the history of the PSL playoffs has any team defended a target so low in the last over. This has only happened twice in the PSL overall, both in group matches.

And in the maelstrom of drama and emotion that followed, it might be easy to forget that the first ball of that over was anything but a yorker. Hunain hit length and headed it wide, but Chris Green, who looked to be playing a match-winner for United, couldn’t do much with it.

The next five balls Hunain shot full and fast. He went wide with a couple of balls to keep them away from the left-arm bowler, first Faheem Ashraf’s and then Imad Wasim’s. But the unerring relentlessness with which he nailed the length stifled United, who suddenly realized a game they had almost won by 22 runs in the previous over was now being ripped from them by Hunain’s hungry hands.

“I have been working hard for the past six months with a view to performing in this PSL,” said Hunain. “I felt that when I get the chance, I will perform here because I used to have a lot of hard times and injuries. This is the result of my hard work.

“I bowled only yorkers for a whole week, making sure I could nail them when the team needed them.”

“You believe you can execute when you’ve worked at it. If you’re mentally clear, execution becomes easier. I went for six yorkers, set the field accordingly, believed and did it.”

Because he had to hold out for 14 in the last over, he again threw in his lot with the yorkers, just as he had done in the previous over. Marginal errors saw one turn into a low full throw, another into a half volley. Zalmi won the last delivery and left the young fast bowler in tears.

“I first played against Peshawar Zalmi,” he recalls. “I couldn’t defend the runs. It’s not unusual that you do bowl one or two inaccurate balls.”

Kingsmen’s win today sets up a final against Zalmi, the team against whom Hunain suffered a heartbreak. Zalmi were by far the best team of the tournament, with their success largely built on Kusal Mendis and Babar Azam’s form with the bat, and Sufiyan Muqeem’s with the ball. But Hunain believed the diversity of match-winners in a Kingsmen squad that has all the momentum made them tougher to contend with.

“We will try to play well as a team. I mentioned that everyone in our team is performing. Someone stands out, and it is a different person almost every game. When you have so many match winners, then you do not run into too many problems, and it is very difficult to plan against us.

“If we plan against another team, we know it’s the top two or any specific individuals, and we plan against them. But it’s difficult against us, because from top to bottom, many different players have put in match-winning performances. Everyone has performed, and it’s very difficult to plan against a team like that. We’ll keep things simple in the final and pray for the best.”

Among those who consoled Hunain after that group game against Zalmi was Labuschagne, who has emerged as one of the most fascinating characters in the league this season, and one who has truly taken the franchise and the league to heart. On Friday, when Hunain’s final, near-perfect delivery sealed victory, it was Labuschagne who found himself overcome with emotion, running the length of the field before throwing his arms around an equally charged Hunain, giving his fast bowler a kiss and a hug before Hunain was lifted into the air by his teammates.

However, for Hunain, no matter how great the odds, faith was always there. “You believe you can execute when you’ve worked at it. If you’re mentally clear, execution becomes easier. I went for six yorkers, set the field accordingly, believed and did it.”