LAHORE: As the HBL Pakistan Super League returned to Lahore on Sunday, the Qalandars ensured the occasion was celebrated to its fullest. Fakhar Zaman took care of the fireworks while Shaheen Shah Afridi had the stumps flickering to light up the night.

After the swashbuckling southpaw had boosted the hosts to a mammoth 241-3 against Peshawar Zalmi with a 45-ball knock for 96, their skipper Shaheen took a five-wicket haul to lead the Qalandars to a 40-run victory.

Shaheen’s famous first over and him going up against Zalmi captain Babar Azam was two of the most awaited themes of the fixture and they were on full display when the Pakistan stars faced off

Having been battered by Fakhar and also Abdullah Shafique, Zalmi showed immense character with the bat and made sure they entertained the capacity crowd at the Gaddafi Stadium here before eventually falling short.

On a fresh surface, the Qalandars had a horrific start with the bat as they lost their in-form opener Tahir Baig, who lost his stumps to a vicious in-swinger by pacer Wahab Riaz. Fakhar and Abdullah had no answers to the grip and swing the ball was generating from the pitch.

Struggling at 14-1 by the end of the fourth over, it turned out the pair was just waiting for their time to arrive. And when Abdullah stylishly lifted Jimmy Neesham for a six over long on before stealing a boundary, it seemed it has.

Abdullah hit a towering six and a four off young spinner Saad Masood in the seventh over before Fakhar got in the mix to swat pacer Salman Irshad past backward point for another boundary.

The batters then started dealing in sixes and Abdullah took on Neesham again to hit two more of them, the first coming via an uncharacteristic scoop from the orthodox right-hander.

After Fakhar cleared long on off Wahab to open the 13th over, Abdullah (75 off 41) dispatched the veteran left-armer for a gigantic six over square leg and smacked him down the ground for a four but saw his innings come to an end on the next ball as he found Neesham at deep point.

Unfazed by his partner’s dismissal, Fakhar kept going on and also got great support from the incoming Sam Billings, who was making his PSL debut. The duo shared a six each in Neesham’s 15th over before Fakhar heaved Salman for a massive hit over midwicket. Billings ended the over with another boundary.

Fakhar smashed Rovman Powell for two fours and as many sixes in the 18th over, which saw the Qalandars bring up their 200, but it was also the one in which the swashbuckling Pakistan southpaw found Bhanuka Rajapaksa at cover.

Billings added two more fours and six while David Wiese added one boundary as the Qalandars posted the mammoth total, which was always going to keep Zalmi under pressure.

And it showed in their start, especially with Shaheen running in with the new ball. The Qalandars captain first broke Zalmi opener Mohammad Haris’ bat and shattered his stumps with a fast yorker on the next ball.

Although Shaheen was thrashed for two boundaries by the incoming Saim Ayub, his return in the third over was a PSL classic. Driven straight down the ground by his Zalmi counterpart Babar, Shaheen’s next ball saw the Pakistan captain get castled by a classical in-swinger.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who replaced Babar at the crease, then, went on to play an innings that would see Zalmi threaten to take the game with Saim’s support

The England right-hander announced his arrival with an upper cut for six off Haris Rauf’s pace and Saim used Zaman Khan’s pace to get two boundaries off the slingy bowler. Kohler-Cadmore had no fear against one of the best leg-spinners of the world in Rashid Khan as he took on the Afghan for three sixes and two fours in his first two overs.

Saim got his first maximum off Sikandar Raza’s off-spin in the 10th over before Kohler-Cadmore smashed the Zimbabwean for another to reach his half-century in 21 balls and boost Zalmi to 119-2 at the halfway stage.

But on the first ball of the 11th over, Kohler-Cadmore (55 off 23) was deceived by a perfect slower one by Haris and Saim (51 off 34) fell to Rashid in the next over after having had clubbed Haris for a six to bring up his 50.

Rajapaksa (24 off 14) and Powell (24 off 20) combined to provide some resistance but both succumbed to Zaman before Shaheen returned to take three lower order wickets — including that of Neesham — to complete his five-wicket haul.

SCOREBOARD

KARACHI KINGS v MULTAN SULTANS

KARACHI KINGS:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Matthew Wade b Ihsanullah 46 47 4 0 97.87

James Vince c Miller b Anwar 27 12 3 2 225.00

Tayyab Tahir lbw b Ihsanullah 65 46 8 1 141.30

Shoaib Malik not out 10 9 0 0 111.11

Imad Wasim not out 14 6 1 1 233.33

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-4) 5

TOTAL (for three wickets, 20 overs) 167

DID NOT BAT: Irfan Khan, Ben Cutting, Aamer Yamin, Muhammad Musa, Tabraiz Shamsi, Akif Javed

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-32 (Vince), 2-141 (Tayyab), 3-148 (Wade)

BOWLING: Hosein 3-0-36-0, Anwar 4-0-28-1, Ihsanullah 4-0-22-2 (4w), Usama 4-0-32-0, Brathwaite 1-0-11-0, Abbas 4-0-37-0

MULTAN SULTANS:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Shan Masood c Wade b Akif 25 16 4 0 156.25

Mohammad Rizwan c Tayyab b Malik 29 25 3 0 116.00

Rilee Rossouw b Malik 7 6 1 0 116.66

David Miller c Malik b Shamsi 7 10 1 0 70.00

Khushdil Shah b Shamsi 4 9 0 0 44.44

Anwar Ali c Aamer b Akif 12 12 0 1 100.00

Usama Mir c Cutting b Shamsi 10 6 0 1 166.66

Carlos Brathwaite b Imad 1 4 0 0 25.00

Akeal Hosein c Cutting b Imad 2 3 0 0 66.66

Abbas Afridi lbw b Malik 2 5 0 0 40.00

Ihsanullah not out 0 3 0 0 0.00

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1) 2

TOTAL (all out, 16.3 overs) 101

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-41 (Shan), 2-57 (Rossouw), 3-68 (Miller), 4-70 (Rizwan), 5-76 (Khushdil), 6-88 (Usama), 7-95 (Brathwaite), 8-97 (Hosein), 9-101 (Anwar)

BOWLING: Imad 4-0-34-2, Aamer 3-0-24-0 (1w), Akif 2-0-8-2, Malik 3.3-0-16-3, Shamsi 4-0-18-3

RESULT: Karachi Kings won by 66 runs.

LAHORE QALANDARS v PESHAWAR ZALMI

LAHORE QALANDARS:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Mirza Tahir Baig b Wahab 5 7 1 0 71.42

Fakhar Zaman c Rajapaksa b Powell 96 45 3 10 213.33

Abdullah Shafique c Neesham b Wahab 75 41 5 5 182.92

Sam Billings not out 47 23 5 3 204.34

David Wiese not out 8 4 1 0 200.00

EXTRAS (B-2, W-8) 10

TOTAL (for three wickets, 20 overs) 241

DID NOT BAT: Hussain Talat, Sikandar Raza, Rashid Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-7 (Tahir), 2-127 (Abdullah), 3-215 (Fakhar)

BOWLING: Arshad 4-0-28-0, Wahab 4-0-45-2 (1w), Neesham 3-0-42-0, Saad 3-0-40-0 (2w), Salman 4-0-47-0 (2w), Powell 2-0-37-1 (3w)

PESHAWAR ZALMI:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Mohammad Haris b Shaheen 0 2 0 0 0.00

Babar Azam b Shaheen 7 6 1 0 116.66

Saim Ayub c Abdullah b Rashid 51 34 7 2 150.00

Tom Kohler-Cadmore c Shaheen b Haris 55 23 3 5 239.13

Bhanuka Rajapaksa c Wiese b Zaman 24 14 3 1 171.42

Rovman Powell b Zaman 20 15 2 1 133.33

James Neesham c Billings b Shaheen 12 8 0 1 150.00

Wahab Riaz c Fakhar b Shaheen 0 2 0 0 0.00

Saad Masood b Shaheen 16 8 3 0 200.00

Arshad Iqbal not out 2 6 0 0 33.33

Salman Irshad not out 0 2 0 0 0.00

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-13) 14

TOTAL (for nine wickets, 20 overs) 201

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 (Haris), 2-28 (Babar), 3-119 (Kohler-Cadmore), 4-127 (Saim), 5-166 (Rajapaksa), 6-171 (Powell), 7-173 (Wahab), 8-193 (Saad), 9-200 (Neesham)

BOWLING: Shaheen 4-0-40-5 (3w), Zaman 3-0-28-2 (3w), Haris 4-0-38-1 (1w), Wiese 2-0-20-0, Rashid 4-0-49-1, Raza 2-0-24-0, Hussain 1-0-1-0

RESULT: Lahore Qalandars won by 40 runs.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2023