Quetta Gladiators defeated Islamabad United by three wickets with 10 balls spare in the opening match of Pakistan Super League 5 in National Stadium Karachi. Azam Khan’s blazing 59 runs helped the defending champions to make it through. Muhammad Nawaz scored 23, Ben Cutting 22 and skipper Sarfraz Ahmed scored 21 runs. Muhammad Musa took three wickets while Akif Javed, Faheem Ashraf and Amad Butt took one wicket each. Muhammad Hasnain named Man of the Match. Playing first Islamabad United set a target of 169 runs. United’s Dawid Malan scored valuable 64 runs in 40 balls. While Quetta’s Muhammad Hasnain took four wickets of 24 runs and Ben Cutting took three wickets of 31 runs. Earlier, Quetta Gladiators won the toss and decided to bowl first. Quetta Gladiators: Jason Roy, Ahmed Shehzad, Shane Watson, Abdul Nasir, Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt &wk), Mohammad Nawaz Ben Cutting, Azam Khan, Sohail Khan, Mohammad Hasnain, Fawad Ahmed Islamabad United: Colin Munro, Luke Ronchi (wk) Hussain Talat, Asif Ali, Dawid Malan, Colin Ingram, Faheem Ashraf, Akif Javed, Shadab Khan(Capt), Amad Butt, Muhammad Musa.