Lahore Qalandars were victorious over Quetta Gladiators in match no. 18 of PSL8 yesterday in Lahore Stadium. The final score was 17 runs in favour of Lahore Qalandars. The final score was 17 runs in favour of Lahore Qalandars.
Lahore Qalandars Inning:
Lahore’s Sikandar Raza was the hero of the show, scoring 71 unbroken runs in just 34 balls to help Lahore Qalandars set Quetta Gladiators a target score of 149. During the course of his spectacular performance, the Zimbabwean batsman hit 8 fours and 3 sixes.
Qalandars were given the opportunity to bat first, however they were bowled out with only 148 runs in 19 overs and 2 balls.
After loosing 7 wickets at score of 50 against the Gladiators, Qalandars were in full of risk of getting out for fewer than hundred runs and being expelled from the game. Despite this, Sikandar Raza and Rashid Khan put together an important fifty-run partnership for their team, which allowed them to back in the game.
Rashid was caught in the deep after he had played 20 balls scoring 21 runs, however this did not happen before he and Raza had combined to score 69 runs in 39 balls before Rashid was dismissed.
It is important to point out that the bowlers for Quetta gave their team a superb start by bringing Lahore’s score down to 29 runs and 4 wickets down in the 1st powerplay over.
Fakhar Zaman, who was in good form, was sent back to the hut after receiving a direct hit from Umaid Asif. Asif was also successful in sending the second batsman, Tahir Baig Mirza, back to pavilion.
During this time, the pacer Naveen-ul-Haq was responsible for getting Hussain Talat and Sam Billings out after they had scored two and six runs, respectively.
Abdullah Shafique was Qalandar’s last home with an early loss of wickets that he night save the match. But, Muhammad Nawaz was able to clean up the right-hander after he plaed 14 balls and scoring 15 runs.
The Lahore team’s skipper, Shaheen Shah Afridi, batted at number six when he first walked to the crease. He had moved up in the order of batting. Nevertheless, the experiment did not yield the expected result because Shaheen was out after scoring 16 runs and the experiment was terminated.
After executing caught at straightforward and removed David Wiese at 2 runs from the game, Nawaz was successful in claiming his second wicket.
Qalandar’s quick bowler Muhammad Hasnain was taken out of the game against Lahore because he was experiencing pain in his ankle.
In the meantime, Naveen-ul-Haq, Yasir Khan, and Umaid Asif, an up-and-coming batter, made their first appearances.
Quetta Gladiators Inning:
In a first-wicket stand of 53 runs, Yasir Khan and Will Smeed fell to Haris Rauf’s final delivery of the powerplay. Khan had scored 14 runs in 15 balls before being removed.
During that time, Rashid Khan trapped the batter in front of the wickets, which resulted in Smeed being sent back to the pavilion. The batter hitting from the right side drove in 32 runs in just 25 balls.
Mohammad Hafeez, who was on two at the time, was dismissed by a direct hit from Fakhar Zaman that hit the wickets.
In his final over, Rashid not only added to the pressure on Quetta by securing a crucial wicket, but he also took Iftikhar Ahmed’s wicket. The leg-spinner for Afghanistan concluded the match with amazing figures of 2-14 in just four overs.
Martin Guptill, who was batting for Quetta and had scored 15 runs in 20 balls, hit one clean down the neck of cow corner off of David Wiese’s bowling. This was further blow to Quetta’s ambitions.
In spite of the fact that the necessary run rate was increasing, Quetta’s batsmen were unable to hit boundaries at the end of their innings, and as a result, they kept losing wickets.
It took Sarfaraz Ahmed 28 balls to reach his current score of 27 runs while he stayed unbeaten.
Conclusion:
When the Gladiators battled to reach their target of 149 runs, the Qalandars, which were captained by Shaheen Shah Afridi and led by Sarfaraz Ahmed, limited them to 131-7 after 20 overs.
The Qalandars have maintained their position at the top of the points table, while the Gladiators remain in the position that is considered to be the worst.
Playing XIs:
Quetta Gladiators: Yasir Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Will Smeed, Martin Guptill, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk/c), Odean Smith, Mohammad Nawaz, Iftikhar Ahmed, Naseem Shah, Umaid Asif, Naveen-ul-Haq
Lahore Qalandars: Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Sam Billings (wk), Mirza Tahir Baig, Hussain Talat, David Wiese, Rashid Khan, Sikandar Raza, Shaheen Afridi (c), Zaman Khan, Haris Rauf
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Aon Ali has graduated from the Institute of Engineering and Technology, Multan in 2012 and then he started his career in a local News agency as an IT manager. Later on, he started creating news reports for the sports category. Since he is fond of cricket, so most of his work is in the coverage of news related to local cricket events.
