Farhan, Philippe help Multan Sultans crush Rawalpindiz

After easily taking out 183 against Rawalpindiz, Multan Sultans secured their position at the top of the PSL 2026 standings with their fourth victory. With Sahibzada Farhan and Josh Philippe starring in the run chase, Sultans appeared ruthless despite having to play for the second time in less than 24 hours. Sultans opted to bowl first after winning the toss for the second evening in a row. Mohammad Rizwan started off the contest with two boundaries in the very first over. In the second half of the Powerplay, Rawalpindiz turned up the heat with Kamran Ghulam dealing in boundaries, despite Yasir Khan's early exit. Despite a positive start, Rizwan was trapped lbw which meant the onus was on the middle order to rescue the side. However, Faisal Akram caused some dent in the middle overs, striking twice to leave Rawalpindiz reeling at 79/4 around the halfway stage. Daryl Mitchell attempted to counter Akram's spin by using the sweep to his advantage to score consecutive boundaries, but the veteran New Zealander was dispatched by Akram in the same over. A hat-trick of sixes from Dion Forrester gave a much-needed boost to the run rate before a short ball from Peter Siddle cut short his stay. Before Sam Billings took over, the batting side was struggling at 128/7 with almost five overs left in the game. They were on the verge of collapse. The Englishman hit three boundaries of Mohammad Wasim Jr. before targeting Siddle in the penultimate over for three more hits to eventually finish unbeaten on 56. While Billings' cameo dragged Rawalpindiz past 180, their bowlers needed to take early wickets in order to take control of the contest, The dangerous Steven Smith did depart early to give the opposition some early spark. However, the subsequent calamity was nothing short of absolute mutilation, effectively ending the contest. Philippe got off to a great start, and Sultans have already scored 58 runs thanks to two sixes from Farhan off Mohammad Amir in the Powerplay. Amir Khan was taken to the cleaners by the Australian but it was the over from Rishad Hossain that flipped the contest completely. Even though Rishad started off with a tidy over, the moment he switched ends, Farhan smashed three sixes in a row off the Bangladeshi spinner to bring up his fifty. Rawalpindiz lost 26 runs when Philippe added one more in the same over. The Australian cleared the ropes once more in the subsequent over, continuing the six-fest. While both half-centurions eventually returned to the pavilion, the damage had already been done as Shan Masood and skipper Ashton Turner took little time to put the bowling side out of their misery.