Babar Azam was unable to build upon his superb batting performance against Islamabad United as the Karachi Kings fell to a frustrating defeat against the Lahore Qalandars.
Lahore won the toss and, no surprise here, chose to field first. Today’s game between the two sides was the 11th T20 of the Pakistan Super League 6 and still no side batting first has gone on to win a game.
Azam, who hit a spectacular 90 runs off 60 balls yesterday, was the Kings first wicket to fall when, in the third over, he was bowled by Shaheen Afridi. The wicket capped off a strange over, which saw Azam dropped by Fakhar Zaman on the third ball and five wides given after a misplaced yorker on the fourth ball. When Azam was bowled, the Kings were 20/1.
Englishman Joe Clarke was another Kings player who failed to build upon a superb innings from yesterday. Clarke, who scored 54 against the Multan Sultans yesterday, could only manage 4 runs today. His wicket fell exactly 2 overs after that of Azam, when he was run out by Haris Rauf who was fielding at short third man.
Colin Ingram’s misery
Colin Ingram, who also featured for Karachi Kings yesterday, was out for a duck the ball after Clarke. Clean bowled by Ahmed Daniyal, Ingram was too slow to bring his bat down to meet a yorker that duly crashed into the stumps. At 37/3 with 5 overs gone, questions surrounding the Kings stamina levels wouldn’t have been amiss.
Yet while wickets were falling at one end of the crease, Sharjeel Khan remained a cool, calm, and assured presence at the other. Of 39 balls he faced, six went for a six and five went for a four as he raced to a total of 64 runs. After Ingram was bowled, he was joined by Mohammad Nabi who proved to be his first longer-term partner of the game. Nabi faced 35 balls and scored 57 runs from those balls, including seven boundaries.
Khan was the next wicket to go after Ingram, 44 balls after the South African departed. Khan flicked a David Wiese ball out to Samit Patel on the rope, who was fielding at deep backward square leg. Patel took the catch at head height and it was a disappointing close to a fruitful innings for Sharjeel, but he could have been out as early as the first over but for a first over dropped catch.
Mohammad Nabi departed next, a little before sixteen overs had been bowled. Haris Rauf bowled a faster ball and Nabi, if anything, Nabi reacted a little too quickly to it and his attempted flick to midwicket sat up nicely for Sohail Akhtar who guided it into his hands from his position at extra cover. With Nabi’s wicket gone to leave the Kings at 158/5, Qalandars captain Ahmed could at least breathe a sigh of relief as he made up for his earlier error of dropping Sharjeel in the first over.
The last four overs of the Kings innings saw four wickets with Imad Wasim, Dan Christian, Waqas Maqsood and Mohammad Amir all falling. Of these, only Christian managed a decent total- hitting 27 off 14 balls before being run out by Afridi. Wasim and Amir were both dismissed with scores of 0 and Maqsood only added 12 before succumbing to a beautiful Afridi yorker.
Karachi Kings finished their 20 overs on a score of 186/9 and Qalandars knew a comeback would be difficult, but (recent) history has favoured the team batting second.
Qalandars innings got off to a nightmare start, as both Sohail Akhtar and Joe Denly were dismissed within the first over. Akhtar was run out by Imad Wasim without even facing a ball and Joe Denly was dismissed next ball for a golden duck when Mohammad Amir’s bowl flew past him and crashed into middle stump.
Fakhar Zaman – a star performance
Similarly, to Karachi and Sharjeel Khan, Zaman proved to be the game-winning presence at one end of the wicket as a superb 83 off 54 balls propelled the Qalandars towards their third win of the tournament.
Throughout the 17 and a bit overs Zaman was at the crease, he was able to hit 12 boundaries as he helped Qalandars towards their target of 187.
When Zaman did fall, the game looked to be going to the wire, with Qalandars on a score of 152/4 with just under three overs to play, and 35 runs to get. Zaman was undone by a slower ball from Christian and he skied his shot to long-off, where he was caught by Babar Azam.
Credit then should go to David Wiese, who hit a stunning 31 runs off just nine deliveries, including six boundaries (three fours, three sixes). His fearless batting display coupled with the slower and steadier approach of Ben Dunk who had been in since the fourth over and hit 57 from 43 for his efforts. The partnership gave Qalandars a well-deserved victory with 4 balls to go, victory sealed when Wiese hit his third six and second of the final over, smashing the ball over square leg.
So, a pleasing victory for the Qalandars and they now sit second in the PSL table with Peshawar Zalmi ahead only on net run rate. The next action in the PSL takes place tomorrow when Islamabad United take on a Quetta Gladiators side looking for their first win of the tournament. (14:00 UK Time).
