Lahore see off Karachi in a thriller in PSL

Karachi - Wiese's little cameo made big difference in the end

A brilliant exhibition of fast bowling by Shaheen Shah Afridi, Fakhar Zaman’s 83 and late cameo by David Wiese (31 not out off 9 balls) helped Lahore Qalandars register a six-wicket victory over Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) on Sunday.

Lahore Qalandars suffered early jolts as their captain Sohail Akhtar was run out on the 4th ball off the opening over and Joe Denly was cleaned up by fired-up Mohammad Amir next.

Now it all depended on Fakhar Zaman and Ben Dunk to provide some sanity to the innings and they did not disappoint them.

Mohammad Nabi after scoring a brilliant 50 bowled superbly. He conceded first boundary on the fifth ball of his third over. Fakhar and Dunk were unable to score freely off him. Nabi gave away 31 runs in his four overs but remained wicketless.

Fakhar reached his 50 off 36 balls and that was his 9th half century of his PSL career. It was the PSL platform which helped him to get selected in the national side.

Dunk had an ordinary tournament so far but hit form against Karachi. He reached his well deserved 50 off 39 deliveries and kept Lahore in the hunt. When things looked smooth and easy for Qalandars they lost Fakhar after he scored 83. Now Lahore needed 30 from the last two overs. Amir conceded 20 in the 19th over and 12 runs were hit off next two balls of the last over bowled by Daniel Christian.

Shaheen said: “We bowled well to contain them under 200. It was really annoying to see catches being dropped off my bowling and it gave me more motivation to bowl fast.

“I really enjoyed bowling against Karachi today.”

Earlier, Karachi Kings looked jittery at the start as they were up against quality fast bowling. The openers Babar Azam and Sharjeel Khan were unable to play freely. Sharjeel was dropped off the bowling of Shaheen Shah Afridi by captain Sohail Akhtar. It cost them dearly as Sharjeel reached his 50 off 35 balls.

It was a good day for the fans as Pakistan Cricket Board allowed 50 per cent of the stadium capacity and almost 15,000 spectators watched the match.

Sharjeel was the only batsman who was playing shots and Mohammad Nabi was a spectator.

The introduction of Samit Patel allowed Nabi to free his arms and he hit 16 runs off the first three balls of the over. Patel gave away 21 runs in his first over which boosted Karachi run rate. Sharjeel was undone by David Wiese but not before he scored 64 off just 39 balls which included six 6s and five 4s. He put on 100 runs for 4th wicket partnership with Nabi. The Afghan all-rounder started slowly but hit 50 off 30 balls and maintained the healthy run rate for Karachi who lost three early wickets.

Haris Rauf sent Nabi back after he scored 58 off jus 35 balls.

Christain was looking dangerous and he could have taken Karachi to 200 mark but he got run as he tried to convert a single into double but got no response from his partner Waqas Maqsood.

Karachi after losing many wickets were left with tailenders to score in the final overs. It did not happen as defending champions scored only 24 runs in last four overs.

Shaheen bowled a fiery final over in which he got two wickets and gave away only three runs. He bowled the final delivery of his spell at 151.3 KMPH and was unplayable.

liaqat@khaleejtimes.com

Lahore Qalandars beat Karachi by 6 wickets

Brief Scores

Karachi Kings 186/9 in 20 overs (S Khan 64, M Nabi 57, D Christian27; S Afridi 3/27, H Rauf 1/32, S Patel 1/27)

Lahore Qalandars (F Zaman 83, B Dunk 57 n.o.; M Amir1/34, W Maqsood 1/34, D Christian 1/39)