The bowlers ran through the Sultans lineup before Usman Khan and Maaz Sadaqat sealed a Qualifier 2 date with Islamabad United.

Multan Sultans might have been the higher-ranked team, but Hyderabad Kingsmen came into this game with five wins in six. In one of the more clinical playoff performances in recent memory they dumped the Sultans out of the competition with ruthless efficiency, tying up their batters in knots before romping to the modest chase of 160 with 28 balls and eight wickets to spare. They will now face Islamabad United on Friday, with the winner going through for a bite at the title on Sunday against Peshawar Zalmi.

The Kingsmen came into this game off the back of the competition's biggest win over Rawalpindiz, and played as if they still had net run rate catching up to do. The Sultans, meanwhile, had ominously lost their previous two games, and hadn't won a match against a team that qualified for the playoffs since beating this very opposition 28 days ago.

But the Kingsmen have since been recrowned. A pace trio of Mohammad Ali, Akif Javed and Hunain Shah kept the Sultans on a leash, and from the moment Ali caught the splice of Smith's bat to draw first blood, the Sultans began to leak wickets on the regular. In a 26-ball spell from that point, the Kingsmen blew through half of the Sultans side for 24 runs, leaving the lower order nakedly exposed for the 13 overs that still remained.

It was left to Shan Masood, who has enjoyed a resurgent Sky exchange campaign, to put up just a total that might have posed a modicum of difficulty for the Kingsmen, and it was a task he went about splendidly. By now, even part-time spinners Saim Ayub and Glenn Maxwell were picking up wickets at the other end, accounting for Ashton Turner and Arafat Minhas on the cheap.

Masood began to turn down singles at the other end, and produced a sumptuous array of conventional shots that he is so often able to convert into a decidedly modern scoring rate. He was especially strong through the covers, able to open up his body against both spin and pace, relying on his timing to keep the runs ticking along. He found a way to raid 56 off the final five, all but 14 had come off his bat.

But the 159 the Sultans ended up with was still their lowest total this season. The Kingsmen had chased 211 against this very opposition a week earlier, and wasted little time brutally demonstrating its inadequacy. Maaz Sadaqat and Usman Khan brushed off the early loss of captain Marnus Labuschagne as Peter Siddle and Muhammad Ismail were plundered for 49 in the final four overs of the skyexch on a flat wicket, with the target racing closer into view every ball.

The end of the Powerplay proved little hindrance to the scoring rate. Mohammad Nawaz's torrid PSL concluded with a 19-run walloping in his only over as Usman Khan tore into him to bring up a 29-ball half-century. Turner was racing through his opetions - the 15.2 overs were delivered by eight separate bowlers - and there was time enough to smash Smith for a pair of sixes before the Australian finally goaded him into holing out at long-on. But by now, he had powered 64 off 35, and guaranteed he would have the last laugh.

Sadaqat brought up his own half-century, taking 25 balls, a couple of overs later, and there was even time for the out-of-form Saim Ayub to get some batting in as the end of the road neared for the Sultans. In the 16th over, Faisal Akram turned one sharply, and Josh Philippe clasped at thin air, letting the ball trickle through for byes. As far as endings to soggy performances go, this one felt rather apt.