(Cricket): Usman, Qais lead Quetta Gladiators to its first win.

KARACHI -- A sparkling 81 on HBL Pakistan Super League debut by Usman Khan and Qais Ahmad's brilliant three for 21 scripted Quetta Gladiators' first win of the season, which came against Multan Sultans on Wednesday night.

In the 14th fixture of the tournament at the National Stadium, Quetta Gladiators also became the first team to defend a total in the ongoing season as they restricted Sultans to 154 to win the contest by 22 runs.

Mohammad Rizwan, who scored his third half-century of the season, and James Vince provided Sultans a solid start with a 63-run opening stand.

Their partnership ended on the last ball of the eighth over, thanks to Qais' leg-break that induced a leading edge off Vince's bat that was safely caught by Sarfaraz Ahmed behind the stumps.

The dismissal tightened the screws on the Sultans batsmen as their next three wickets fell for 27 runs coming from 29 balls. Qais accounted for two of them - Shan Masood (one off four) and Rilee Rossouw (three off eight) - while Sohaib Maqsood's stay at the crease was curtailed to only four balls by Mohammad Nawaz's left-arm spin.

With Sultans needing over two runs required per ball for a win, Khushdil Shah (19 off 12) stepped inside the boundary rope. He contributed 37 runs with Rizwan, who stroked 66 off 50 and smashed seven fours and two sixes.

Needing 61 off the last five overs, Sultans crumbled under pressure. They lost Khushdil, Carlos Brathwaite (four off three), Rizwan and Sohail Khan (eight off five) for 12 runs in nine balls - all fours dismissals shared equally between Zahid Mahmood and Mohammad Hasnain.

Their last two...