LAHORE: The reverse clash between Lahore Qalandars and Karachi Kings — the biggest rivals of the HBL Pakistan Super League — turned out to be a dead rubber, and it felt like one as well.

The Qalandars, it seemed, were playing just for the sake of it, while the Kings — with nothing to lose after having already been knocked out — enjoyed the absence of pressure and wrapped up their campaign with an 86-run win here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday.

The Kings came into the match with as many as eight changes to post a challenging total of 196-7, which ended up being just too much for the hosts, who were bundled out for 110 runs.

The Qalandars made a poor start to their chase, losing three wickets in the powerplay, including that of swashbuckling opener Fakhar Zaman. With pacer Mohammad Umar and Akif Javed striking for the Kings, the Qalandars were 31-3 after the first six overs.

Before the Qalandars could find their rhythm when Hussain Talat hit three boundaries in four deliveries, they lost another wicket when medium pacer James Fuller forced an edge off Sam Billings’ bat for the Englishman to get caught behind.

The hosts found themselves deeper in trouble with David Wiese getting caught in the deep off Kings’ captain Imad Wasim’s left-arm spin before Shane Dadswell became leg-spinner Imran Tahir’s first scalp when Irfan Niazi pulled off a brilliant effort for a catch at long-off.

It was all but over for the Qalandars when Imran returned to end Hussain’s time at the crease after the batter had added a run-ball 25 to the total.

After a sharp spinner from Imran got Rashid Khan retired hurt and Imad cleaned up Dilbar Hussain to get his second wicket, Zaman Khan and Haris Rauf combined to hit three sixes to minimise the damage, only to see their team bundled out with the former’s being the final wicket.

After winning the toss and opting to bat first the Kings were 62-1 by the end of the powerplay after Moham­mad Akhlaq and Tayyab Tahir upped the ante following Haider Ali’s early dismissal.

But once Hussain was introduced into the attack, Tayyab miscued a ramp shot to find Dilbar at fine-leg before the incoming Qasim Akram got a leading edge to get caught in the covers to become Hussain’s second victim.

Hussain’s return to bowl the 11th over, however, saw him get hit for two boundaries each by Akhlaq and Imad — the left-hander making room and crunching a cut off the backfoot to find the gap between point and cover to take the Kings to 103-3 at halfway stage.

Akhlaq (51 off 36) brought up his maiden PSL half-century with a single off leg-spinner Rashid in the 12th over but fell to pacer Haris in the next after adding just a run to his tally.

With the flow of runs for the Kings slowed down to an extent for the next three overs, Imad broke the pressure with a sizzling boundary past point off Haris to start off the 17th over before Ben Cutting improvised to scoop him past the keeper for four more.

After smashing Zaman Khan’s pace through the offside and straight down the ground for two boundaries, Imad (45 off 31) faltered when he failed to execute a scoop shot to see his stumps shattered in the 18th over.

Unfazed by Imad’s dismissal, Cutting dispatched Haris for a boundary and two big sixes over deep square leg and midwicket, only to get trapped lbw by the right-armer on the last ball of the penultimate over. Zaman bowled a fine final over, conceding only six runs in it and bagging his second wicket in form of Irfan.

SCOREBOARD

Lahore Qalandars v Karachi Kings

KARACHI KINGS:

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

Haider Ali c Kamran b Dilbar 8 5 2 0 160.00

Muhammad Akhlaq c Wiese b Haris 51 36 5 2 141.66

Tayyab Tahir c Dilbar b Hussain 40 23 4 1 173.91

Qasim Akram c Dadswell b Hussain 2 3 0 0 66.66

Imad Wasim b Zaman 45 31 6 0 145.16

Ben Cutting lbw b Haris 33 14 2 3 235.71

Irfan Khan c Hussain b Zaman 0 2 0 0 0.00

James Fuller not out 10 5 1 0 200.00

Mohammad Umar not out 1 2 0 0 50.00

EXTRAS (NB-1, W-5) 6

TOTAL (for seven wickets, 20 overs) 196

DID NOT BAT: Imran Tahir, Akif Javed

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9 (Haider), 2-79 (Tayyab), 3-83 (Qasim), 4-117 (Akhlaq), 5-169 (Imad), 6-185 (Cutting), 7-191 (Irfan)

BOWLING: Dilbar 3-0-37-1 (2w), Zaman 4-0-39-2 (1w, 1nb), Haris 4-0-52-2 (2w), Wiese 1-0-6-0, Rashid 4-0-30-0, Hussain 3-0-24-2, Dadswell 1-0-8-0

LAHORE QALANDARS:

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

Fakhar Zaman c Cutting b Umar 13 11 1 1 118.18

Abdullah Shafique c Tayyabb Akif 2 6 0 0 33.33

Kamran Ghulam b Akif 11 10 0 1 110.00

Sam Billings c Akhlaq b Fuller 11 13 0 0 84.61

Hussain Talat c Cutting b Tahir 25 25 4 0 100.00

David Wiese c Irfan b Imad 2 7 0 0 28.57

Shane Dadswell c Irfan b Tahir 3 4 0 0 75.00

Rashid Khan retired hurt 6 13 1 0 46.15

Haris Rauf c Fuller b Umar 18 14 0 2 128.57

Dilbar Hussain b Imad 8 3 1 0 266.66

Zaman Khan not out 6 7 0 1 85.71

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-2) 5

TOTAL (all out, 18.5 overs) 110

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16 (Fakhar), 2-20 (Abdullah), 3-31 (Kamran), 4-54 (Billings), 5-66 (Wiese), 6-71 (Dadswell), 7-74 (Hussain), 7-79* (Rashid), 8-88 (Dilbar), 9-110 (Haris)

BOWLING: Imad 4-0-26-2, Akif 3-0-8-2, Umar 3.5-0-20-2, Fuller 4-0-29-1 (1w), Tahir 4-0-24-2 (1w)

RESULT: Karachi Kings won by 86 runs.

SCOREBOARD

Peshawar Zalmi v Islamabad United

PESHAWAR ZALMI:

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

Saim Ayub b Fazalhaq 0 3 0 0 0.00

Mohammad Haris c Hasan b Shadab 79 39 7 5 202.56

Bhanuka Rajapaksa c Munro b Shadab 41 25 4 2 164.00

Tom Kohler-Cadmore c Sohaib b Faheem 12 5 1 1 240.00

Haseebullah Khan b Wasim 10 11 1 0 90.90

James Neesham c Fazalhaq b Hasan 1 2 0 0 50.00

Aamer Jamal b Hasan 9 11 1 0 81.81

Khurram Shahzad not out 11 15 1 0 73.33

Mujeeb Ur Rahman c Shadab b Hasan 2 2 0 0 100.00

Sufiyan Muqeem not out 6 7 0 0 85.71

EXTRAS (B-1, W-7) 8

TOTAL (for eight wickets, 20 overs) 179

DID NOT BAT: Salman Irshad

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-1 (Saim), 2-116 (Rajapaksa), 3-132 (Kohler-Cadmore), 4-138 (Haris, 12.3 ov), 5-139 (Neesham), 6-159 (Haseebullah), 7-159 (Aamer), 8-161 (Mujeeb)

BOWLING: Fazalhaq 4-0-27-1 (2w), Hasan 4-0-39-3 (2w), Faheem 4-0-39-1 (1w), Shadab 4-0-42-2 (1w), Wasim 4-0-31-1 (1w)

ISLAMABAD UNITED:

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

Hassan Nawaz c Salman b Khurram 0 5 0 0 0.00

Alex Hales c Cadmore b Aamer Jamal 15 16 3 0 93.75

Sohaib Maqsood c Haseebullah b Aamer 15 6 2 1 250.00

Colin Munro c Aamer b Neesham 15 14 2 0 107.14

Rahmanullah Gurbaz c Sufiyan b Neesham 33 24 3 1 137.50

Shadab Khan c Saim b Sufiyan 25 19 2 2 131.57

Asif Ali c Rajapaksa b Sufiyan 5 7 0 0 71.42

Faheem Ashraf b Khurram 38 13 2 4 292.30

Hasan Ali c Mujeeb b Sufiyan 0 2 0 0 0.00

Mohammad Wasim not out 14 11 3 0 127.27

Fazalhaq Farooqi b Khurram 0 1 0 0 0.00

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-3, W-2) 6

TOTAL (all out, 19.4 overs) 166

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 (Hassan), 2-21 (Sohaib), 3-32 (Hales), 4-65 (Munro), 5-100 (Shadab), 6-111 (Gurbaz), 7-111 (Asif), 8-111 (Hasan), 9-166 (Faheem)

BOWLING: Khurram 1.4-0-13-3, Mujeeb 4-0-23-0 (1w), Salman 4-0-38-0, Aamer 3-0-28-2 (1w), Sufiyan 4-0-37-3, Neesham 3-0-23-2

RESULT: Peshawar Zalmi won by 13 runs.

Current Standings (Tabulated under: teams, matches, wins, lost, points, net run-rate)

Lahore 10 7 3 14 +0.915

Multan 10 6 4 12 +0.500

Islamabad 10 6 4 12 -0.708

Peshawar 10 5 5 10 -0.452

Karachi 10 3 7 6 +0.756

Quetta 10 3 7 6 -1.066

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2023