Batting prowess took centre stage as the Lahore Qalandars won for the second time in as many days with an excellent victory against Quetta Gladiators.
Fakhar Zamam hit an unbeaten 82 while Mohammad Hafeez scored an unbeaten 73 for Lahore as they won by nine wickets.
Qalandars won the toss and elected to field first. Quetta opener Tom Banton was unable to improve upon Saturday’s disappointing innings against the Karachi Kings. He lasted twice as many balls, facing eight on Monday, but was out for just four runs. Yet again, he fell foul of a terrible mishit when his attempted pull shot towards midwicket took a thick outer edge and the ball, bowled by Haris Rauf, sailed to third man where Ahmed Daniyal took an easy catch.
Saim Ayub was out just four balls later, caught at mid-on by Sohail Ahktar to leave the Gladiators with a score of 12-2 after just 15 balls.
However, Chris Gayle was back to his brilliant best and he scored a cool 66 off 40 balls that included five sixes and five fours across a 13-over period.
Gladiators put on 101 runs for the third wicket, Sarfaraz Ahmed joining Gayle at the crease and hitting his own 40 runs off just 33 balls. Ahmed was eventually caught behind by keeper Ben Dunk and the partnership was broken. The Gladiators found themselves 113-3 with just under 14 overs played.
Gayle was out soon after Ahmed. Rashid Khan bowled an excellent spinner that slid under Gayle’s bat, as he attempted to knock it for six, sending middle stump backwards in the process. The delight was plain to see on Khan’s face as he threw his arms open in celebration and pointed to the name on the back of his shirt with the Gladiators now at 117-4.
Mohammad Nawaz contributed well to the Gladiators total, scoring a quick 33 runs off just 20 balls. Azam Khan and Ben Cutting also took to the crease, but only managed 13 and five runs respectively. Come the end of the 20 overs, it looked as if Lahore would have a mountain to climb in trying to better Quetta’s score of 178.
And climb that mountain they did, in superb fashion at that.
Zaman enjoyed a wonderful innings, scoring 82 runs off 52 balls. His score of 82 sets the benchmark as the highest score by an individual so far this tournament. Consistently timing his shots well, he looked comfortable and his confidence exuded as the innings progressed.
Initially Zaman was partnered by his captain Sohail Akhtar. Together the two combined well and had produced 64 runs by the time Ahktar fell victim to a wonderful googly bowled by Zahid Mahmood. Akhtar’s innings stuttered out of the blocks, yet he did well in allowing Zaman to express himself through his shots and made a good job of calling those all-important singles.
Zaman was then joined by Hafeez, who hit a simply stupendous 73 off 33 deliveries. With an incredible strike rate of 221, Hafeez hit six sixes and five fours as he racked up the runs at a rate of knots.
Considering just three extras were given to the Qalandars during their innings, it’s a testament to the quality of the batting on show that they were able to pull back a score of 178 with deliveries to spare.
That result sees Qalandars at the top of the table with two wins from the two games played, while Quetta Gladiators have lost both of their opening fixtures.
Tuesday’s solitary fixture sees the Multan Sultans face Peshawar Zalmi (2pm UK time) with both sides looking to get off the mark and claim their first win of the tournament.
