LAHORE: Lahore Qalan­dars are off the mark, finally.

Roused by the backing of a vociferious home crowd, a mammoth 155-run partnership between Ben Dunk and Samit Patel set up Qalandars’ first victory of the fifth HBL-Pakistan Super League when they beat Quetta Gladiators by 37 runs at the Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday.

While Dunk aboslutely plundered the Gladiators’ bowling attack for 93 runs off 43 balls, Patel’s all-round effort — a 71-ball 40 and 2-30 with his left-arm spin — ensured Qalandars’ reputation as mere pushovers was no longer valid.

After Qalandars were put into bat, Samit and Dunk’s fourth wicket effort drove the home side to a first innings score of 209-5, which proved too much for the Gladiators batsmen.

The defending champions hardly looked like being up to the task with only Ben Cutting offering some resistance with a 27-ball 53 and when he departed, caught deep on the on-side in the 18th over, any lingering chances Sarfraz Ahmed’s men had were all over. They eventually stumbled to 172 all out as paceman Salman Irshad claimed an impressive 4-29, including the crucial wicket of Cutting.

The Gladiators’ chase began with a brief interruption after one of the floodlights went off, forcing players off the ground, and Samit struck first for the Qalandars after he cleaned up opener Jason Roy (12) as the right-hander tried to go straight over the top.

The scoreboard pressure guaranteed the wickets kept coming for Qalandars in quick succession.

Roy’s fellow opener Australian veteran Shane Watson looked like staging a potentially dangerous counter-attack after Ahsan Ali joined him at the crease.

But it was after only one over following Roy’s dimissal, that Ahsan miscued a pull off pacer Dilbar Hussain and was caught by Chirs Lynn.

Sarfraz came at number four with the captain’s intent to save the sinking ship, only to prize Samit with his second scalp after adding nine off eight when he predictably tried to go for a big shot, only to be caught on the on-side by Mohammad Hafeez.

Six balls later, Watson, who looked in form, was also gone after contributing 23-ball 17, trying to chase a short, wide delivery by Dilbar and getting caught behind by wicket-keeper Dunk.

Azam Khan and left-hander Mohammad Nawaz also tried to avoid the second successive defeat for their team, but could only manage 12 and 24 respectively, before Salman finished off the tail.

Earlier, Dunk and Samit came together at the crease with the Qalandars at a perilous 50-3 in the eighth over and staring at a fourth successive defeat.

Fakhar Zaman (15) and Chris Lynn (27) made a solid start but Hafeez’s departure for a duck meant the Gladiators were in the ascendancy.

What followed after that, though, was absolute carnage as Gladiators bowlers were hit to all parts of the ground.

Dunk smashed a whopping 10 sixes, setting the record for the most sixes in a PSL innings. Five other batsmen previously held the record for most sixes in an innings with 8.

Both Dunk and Patel were out in the final over but by then, the damage had been done.

The onslaught began when Patel hit Cutting for two sixes in the 11th over and Dunk got on the act in the next, hitting Fawad Ahmed for a six and a four.

Anwar Ali was their next victim, conceding 19 runs in the 13th with Dunk hitting two huge sixes and Patel adding a four.

It was the 15th over which put Qalandars truly on target to cross the 200-mark as Dunk hit four successive sixes off Nawaz to get 27 runs.

That followed overs that brought 14, 17, 10 and 11 runs respectively. Cutting’s final over saw him concede 17 runs but also saw the back of both Dunk and Patel.

The Qalandars will now look to build upon the momentum earned by the victory when they face two-time champions Islamabad United on Wednesday night.

United go into the match desperately needing a victory after losing their last match against Karachi Kings after their previous match against Peshawar Zalmi was rained off.

Qalandars’ victory on Tuesday has made the race for the top four even more interesting.

Current standings

(Tabulated under played, won, lost, tied, no-result, points, net run-run-rate):

Multan Sultans 5 4 1 0 0 8 +1.415

Karachi Kings 5 3 2 0 0 6 -0.196

Quetta Gladiators 6 3 3 0 0 6 -0.452

Islamabad United 6 2 3 0 1 5 -0.051

Peshawar Zalmi 6 2 3 0 1 5 -0.430

Lahore Qalandars 4 1 3 0 0 2 -0.292

Scoreboard

LAHORE QALANDARS

Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Fakhar Zaman c Anwar b Nawaz 15 14 2 0 107.14

C.A. Lynn c Sarfraz b Hasnain 27 22 4 1 122.72

B.R. Dunk c Ahsan b Cutting 93 43 3 10 216.27

Mohammad Hafeez c Watson b Fawad 0 1 0 0 0.00

S.R. Patel c Nawaz b Cutting 71 40 9 2 177.50

Sohail Akhtar not out 0 0 0 0 -

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-1) 3 - - - -

TOTAL (for five wkts, 20 overs) 209 - - - -

FALL OF WKTS: 1-36 (Fakhar, 4.4 ov), 2-49 (Lynn, 6.6 ov), 3-50 (Hafeez, 7.3 ov), 4-205 (Patel, 19.4 ov), 5-209 (Dunk, 19.6 ov).

DID NOT BAT: S. Prasanna, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Faizan, Dilbar Hussain, Salman Irshad.

BOWLING: Mohammad Nawaz 4-0-44-1; Naseem Shah 4-0-48-0 (1w); Fawad Ahmed 4-0-28-1; Mohammad Hasnain 4-0-32-1; Cutting 3-0-36-2; Anwar Ali 1-0-19-0.

QUETTA GLADIATORS

Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

J.J. Roy b Patel 12 11 1 0 109.09 S.R. Watson c Dunk b Dilbar 23 17 1 2 135.29

Ahsan Ali c Lynn b Dilbar 2 3 0 0 66.66

Sarfraz Ahmed c Hafeez b Patel 9 8 2 0 112.50 Azam Khan c Faizan b Salman 12 9 1 1 133.33

Mohammad Nawaz c Dilbar b Faizan 24 17 4 0 141.17

B.C.J. Cutting c Hafeez b Salman 53 27 3 5 196.29

Anwar Ali c Hafeez b Faizan 4 5 0 0 80.00

Fawad Ahmedb Salman 15 13 2 0 86.66 Naseem Shahlbw b Salman 7 7 0 1 100.00

Mohammad Hasnain not out 1 1 0 0 100.00

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-3, W-7) 12 - - - -

TOTAL (all out, 20 overs) 172 - - - -

FALL OF WKTS: 1-28 (Roy, 3.1 ov), 2-39 (Ahsan, 4.1 ov), 3-50 (Sarfraz, 5.4 ov), 4-53 (Watson, 6.4 ov), 5-79 (Azam, 9.3 ov), 6-94 (Nawaz, 11.4 ov), 7-116 (Anwar, 13.6 ov), 8-159 (Cutting 17.5 ov), 9-165, 19.1 ov), 10-172 (Naseem, 19.6 ov).

BOWLING: Shaheen Shah Afridi 4-0-39-0 (2w);Patel 4-0-31-2 (3w); Dilbar Hussain 2-0-11-2; Salman Irshad4-0-29-4 (1w); Prasanna 3-0-28-0 (1w); Mohammad Faizan 3-0-29-2.

RESULT: Lahore Qalandars won by 37 runs.

UMPIRES: Shozab Raza (Pakistan) and Faisal Afridi (Pakistan).

TV UMPIRE: Asif Yaqoob (Pakistan).

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Anees (Pakistan).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Ben Dunk (Lahore Qalandars).

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2020