PSL 7: Impressive Lahore Qalandars Hand Multan First Loss.

PSL 7: An all round performance by Lahore Qalandars ended Multan Sultans’ unbeaten PSL campaign in Lahore.

Batting first Fakhar Zaman continued his impressive PSL form even as Abdullah Shafique departed in the first over.

Kamran Ghulam and Fakhar ensured a steady flow of runs and added 86 runs for the third wicket. Anwar Ali broke the stand with the wicket of Ghulam in the 12th over, but Fakhar carried on bringing up his fifth 50 in six innings in 31 balls.

Imran Tahir sent Fakhar back to the pavilion after he scored 60 off 37 balls and Qalandars were 118/3 with 5 overs to go.

Mohammad Hafeez and Phil Salt then took charge of things and added 60 off just 28 balls with Hafeez scoring a quick fire 43 off 29 balls and Salt ended not out on 26 off 13 balls as Lahore posted a challenging 182/4 in 20 overs.

Lahore then performed exceptionally well the ball as well. Restricting Sultans’ to under 40 runs in the powerplay while captain Shaheen Afridi also got the wicket of in-form Shan Masood for just 8 runs.

Mohammad Rizwan built a watchful partnership with Shoaib Maqsood but was cleaned up by Rashid Khan, who then got Rilee Rossouw in the same over before Tim David prevented a hattrick.

With 10 overs gone Multan had posted only 63 runs on the board and needed firepower. David dealt in a flurry of boundaries, including a six off Rashid. But his attack was short-lived as he fell to Zaman Khan.

Haris Rauf bagged the wicket of Maqsood, leaving the Sultans reeling at 89/5.  Zaman Khan picked up the last wicket to finish with three as Lahore beat the table topping Sultans to inflict their first defeat of the season.

Brief scores: 

Lahore Qalandars 182/4 in 20 overs (Fakhar Zaman 60, Mohammad Hafeez 43; Imran Tahir 1-30)

Multan Sultans 130 in 19.3 overs (Sohaib Maqsood 29, Tim David 24; Zaman Khan 3-21)