James Vince was rewarded for his century in Karachi Kings’ opening 2025 Pakistan Super League game, given a hair dryer for his efforts in the team changing room.
The former England batter notched 101 from 43 deliveries, trumping Mohammad Rizwan’s hundred earlier in the piece as Multan Sultans’ 234-3 was hauled in with four balls and four wickets to spare. Vince was named Player of the Match for his efforts, having helped his side recover from 79-4 in partnership with Khushdil Shah (60 off 37).
He was also named the Dawlance Reliable Player of the Match – a separate award handed out by Karachi Kings to “the most reliable player of the game” – and was given a Dawlance hair dryer as a prize as his teammates chanted, “Vince! Vince! Vince!”
Cricket has a proud history of unusual match awards, with a lawn mower, a blender, a plot of land and even honorary citizenship handed out as reward for feats of on-field brilliance in the past.
Vince’s ton marks the start of a new chapter in his career, the 34-year-old having quit first-class cricket in order to pursue greater opportunities on the franchise circuit. The ECB implemented a new policy over the winter restricting the handing out of NOCs to all-format cricketers, with Vince the most notable player to give up the red-ball game in response. Vince’s decision was also prompted by a series of unexplained attacks on his family home, with him choosing to move to Dubai as a result.
The elegant right-hander remains a highly sought-after figure in T20 leagues around the world, with this his seventh career century in the format. He averages 32 and strikes at 135 from 420 T20 games so far. Vince won 55 international caps, with the highlights being a century to cap off a raucous 3-0 ODI whitewash of Pakistan in 2021 by a side cobbled together at short notice following a Covid-19 outbreak that ruled out England’s first-choice squad. He was also famously run out for 83 on the first day of the 2017/18 Ashes series, a moment regarded as one of the great ‘what-ifs’ for England down under in recent years.
Vince’s Karachi Kings will be in action again on Tuesday, April 15, when they take on Lahore Qalandars in Karachi.
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