Match 27, Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2019, 9 March 2019

Cameron Delport hammered the fastest century in the PSL history off just 49 balls before Faheem Ashraf took six wickets to steer Islamabad United to the playoffs during their 49-run rout of Lahore Qalandars in the first match of the season in Karachi.

Delport smashed an unbeaten 60-ball 117 to propel Islamabad to 238-3 -- the highest total in PSL history. Faheem then chipped in with 6-19 -- the second-best figures in all PSL behind Karachi's Ravi Bopara (6-16 vs Lahore at Sharjah in 2016) -- as Lahore were restricted to 189-9 in 20 overs.

Besides the fastest hundred performance, it was a record galore at the National Stadium Karachi. Islamabad's total is now the highest in PSL, beating Lahore's own 204 they made against Multan Sultans at Sharjah earlier this season.

Islamabad hit a total of 16 sixes -- the most in a PSL team's innings -- as Asif also joined the party equaling Kamran Akmal's record of fastest to 50-run mark (17 balls), during his 21-ball 55 not out.

Shaheen Shah Afridi conceded 62 runs in his four overs after dismissing Luke Ronchi off the first ball of the match.

The win -- Islamabad's fifth in ten games -- gave them third place while the defeat leaves Lahore in a difficult situation as they need to beat Multan Sultans by a big margin on Sunday and hope Karachi Kings lose both their remaining round matches.

Lahore have six points from nine games while Karachi have eight points from eight. Quetta Gladiators are on top of the table with 14 points from nine matches. Peshawar Zalmi are second with 12 points in nine while Multan Sultans are out of play-off contention, with just four points in nine matches.

Lahore also tried to match Islamabad's run riot but apart from Sohail Akhtar (34-ball 75) and Fakhar Zaman (20-ball 38) the innings fell apart.

Sohail added 54 for the fifth-wicket with David Wiese (12) but Faheem struck at regular intervals, with wickets of Zaman, Anton Devcich (18), Haris Sohail (0), Sohail, Salman Agha (3) and Shaheen Afridi (1) to end Lahore's fight.

Earlier in the day, it was Delport all the way when Islamabad batted after being sent into bat.

Delport steadied the innings after the shock of Ronchi's dismissal as he added 32 for the second-wicket with Phil Salt (10) and a had a brilliant alliance of 128 with Chadwick Walton, who made a 30-ball 48. The real impetus came during Delport's fourth-wicket stand of 88 with Asif that came off just 37 balls.

Delport reached his fifty -- his second this season -- off just 23 balls, lifting Islamabad to 100 in just 9.5 overs.

Delport reached his 100 with a six off Sandeep Lamichanne, the fifth of the PSL history. Peshawar's Kamran Akmal (2017 and 2018) has two hundreds while Islamabad's Sharjeel Khan (2016) and Karachi's Colin Ingram (2019) previously reached three figures.

Islamabad, who knocked 135 in the last ten overs, were supercharged in the last five overs which yielded a whopping 80 runs. Lamichanne was hit for four sixes in the 16th over (three by Delport and one by Asif) while Shaheen's 16th over had one six and a boundary.

In all eight sixes and as many boundaries were hit in the last five overs, leaving a hapless Lahore attack into submission.