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Qalandars halt Gladiators' run

Dubai - Umar Akmal, Delport 95-run partnership powers Lahore to 63-run win

Powered by a 95-run partnership between Umar Akmal (93) and Cameron Delport (73), Lahore Qalandars stopped the winning run of unbeaten Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League, Monday night.
Qalandars won by a convincing 63 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (DICS) in the only match for the day, the eighth of the tournament. Lahore Qalandars had lost two back to back matches before the night's encounter, while for the league leaders Gladiators, this was the first reverse in four matches.
Qalandars, without the services of the injured West Indies megastar Chris Gayle looked completely the underdogs on paper, against their in-form opponents who were brimming with confidence, till Monday.
Man-of-the-Match Umar's essay, made from just 40 balls, was studded with eight 6s and six 4s while Cameron Delport's was an equally aggressive knock, coming from 55 deliveries with eight 4s and three 6s. These tenures helped Lahore Qalandars to a solid 194 from 20 overs.
Later, the Gladiators found the going difficult against the tidy bowling of Zafar Gohar (4-14) and Ajantha Mendis (3-17) to fold up for 131 in the 17th over.
Lahore Qalandars began operations well on a surface that behaved consistently again at the DICS, without much bounce. This led to another low scoring session in the second innings. Azhar Ali and Delport put on 62 runs for the opening wicket before Ali (20) perished when going for a big hit. Then came the high point of the game when the enterprising Umar and Delport got going in superb fashion. Umar's knock was in particular more severe especially on the medium pacers.
The Gladiators could not recover from a shaky early beginning and the middle order did try to correct the situation initially with just singles and twos and the occasional boundary, but in the end, careless shot making was their downfall.
Ahmad Shehzad (15) and Kevin Pietersen (12) the in-form batters were back in the pavilion after promising starts and it Mohammad Nawaz who stood up against the bowling with 42 runs and for a brief period the 74 runs he put up in the company of Sarfraz Ahmad (31) looked good to take the fight into enemy territory. However Gohar and the flat low trajectory of Lankan ace Mendis hastened the end of the innings when it was 16.2 overs old.