KARACHI: In his first match as captain, Shaheen Shah Afridi wouldn’t have wished to be on the losing side, that too after his team Lahore Qalandars posted 206 for Multan Sultans to chase here at the National Stadium on Saturday.

The Pakistan pace sensation tried his best. With the defending champions cruising at 168-1 by the 16th over, Shaheen, after conceding 20 runs in his first two overs, came back to clean up Multan skipper Mohammad Rizwan.

While Shaheen took Rizwan’s crucial wicket, he was smashed for three fours, one by South African Rilee Rossouw and two by Sohaib Maqsood.

The next over saw pacer Haris Rauf remove Rossouw on the first ball when the left-hander missed a full and straight ball which dislodged his stumps before Maqsood hit a six.

Multan needed 17 to win off 12 balls when Shaheen came in to bowl his last over. The 21-year-old gave way only one run and sent back Tim David and Maqsood, bringing the Qalandars back into the game.

The whole effort, however, was spoiled when the incoming Khushdil Shah smashed Haris for three consecutive fours and a six, all through the off-side, to wrap up the match with two balls to spare and completed the highest-ever run chase in the HBL Pakistan Super League history.

Sultans won the match by five wickets, their second consecutive victory of the seventh PSL edition.

To set the new record, Shan Masood’s opening partnership with Rizwan was crucial. The duo combined for 150 runs off 86 balls, as Left-handed Shan smashed 83 off 50 (14 fours and one six) while Rizwan contributed 69 off 42 (six fours and three sixes).

Shan demonstrated an array of classic cricket shots, while Rizwan mostly used power to remove pressure whenever the Qalandars bowlers got a sniff.

The Lahore attack must be feeling that it let down the effort made by their openers Fakhar Zaman and Abdullah Shafique, who collaborated for 89 runs off less than nine overs.

Shafique’s role in the partnership was of providing Fakhar the platform to be himself and go for the attack and the latter played some beautiful shots all round the circle.

Shafique contributed only 24 off 22, hitting three boundaries before being dismissed by veteran leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who made the difference with three wickets in Multan’s opening win against Karachi Kings.

Fakhar went on to play until the 12th over before miscuing a paddle sweep off Ihasunullah for Imran Khan Sr. to take a diving catch at short fine leg. The hard-hitting southpaw accumulated 76 off 35, smashing 11 fours and two sixes.

It was Kamran Ghulam, coming in at number three, who tried to carry forward the rhythm set by the openers. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa right-hander announced his arrival to the crease with an exquisite drive through extra cover off a tossed up delivery by Tahir.

Ghulam took on Tahir again when he hit one over extra cover in the 11th. After Fakhar’s departure in the next over, Ghulam was joined by another seasoned campaigner in Mohammad Hafeez, who also got off the mark with a boundary against Ihsanullah.

With Ghulam clearly looking dangerous, Rizwan confided in Tahir to take his prize wicket. The South African, however, spilled a chance after Ghulam played it straight to him on the third ball of the over.

The right-hander punished Tahir for his mistake, when he pulled to clear the midwicket boundary off a half-tracker at the end of the over. Rizwan introduced Khushdil into the attack to put some breaks on Ghulam. The plan worked, with Multan conceding only 10 runs in the next two overs.

Khushdil dismissed Hafeez in his second over, taking a catch off his own bowling when the 40-year-old mistimed a straight drive after adding only 16 off 12 balls.

Ghulam hit another six and a four in the next two overs off Dahani and Willey, but the latter finally got him when Ghulam tried to clear the square-leg boundary of a back-of-length ball, only for Dahani to take a simple catch.

Lahore were 169-4 when Ghulam departed after adding 43 off 31 balls, hitting two fours and three sixes.

From that point, it was South African all-rounder David Wiese (13 off 5) and Afghan leg-spinner Rashid Khan (17 off 4) who hit two sixes each, while the latter smashed a four as well, to help Lahore go past 200.

Scoreboard

LAHORE QALANDARS:

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

Fakhar Zaman c Imran b Ihsanullah 76 35 11 2 217.14

Abdullah Shafique c Khushdil b Tahir 24 22 3 0 109.09

Kamran Ghulam c Dahani b Willey 43 21 2 3 138.70

Mohammad Hafeez c & b Khushdil 16 12 2 0 133.33

Ben Dunk b Dahani 9 11 0 0 81.81

David Wiese not out 13 5 0 2 260.00

Rashid Khan not out 17 4 1 2 425.00

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-3, W-4) 8

TOTAL (for five wickets, 20 overs) 206

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-89 (Shafique), 2-117 (Fakhar), 3-147 (Hafeez), 4-169 (Ghulam), 5-188 (Dunk).

DID NOT BAT: Samit Patel, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan

BOWLING: David Willey 3-0-23-0 (1w), Imran Khan Sr. 3.4-0-54-0, Shahnawaz Dahani 4-0-44-1, Imran Tahir 4-0-32-1, Tim David 1-0-15-0, Ihsanullah 2.2-0-20-1, Khushdil Shah 2-0-14-1 (2w)

MULTAN SULTANS:

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

Shan Masood b Rashid 83 50 14 1 166.00

Mohammad Rizwan b Shaheen 69 42 6 3 164.28

Sohaib Maqsood c Hafeez b Shaheen 20 17 2 1 117.64

Rilee Rossouw b Haris 5 3 1 0 166.66

Tim David c Shafique b Shaheen 1 3 0 0 33.33

Khushdil Shah not out 18 4 3 1 450.00

David Willey not out 0 0 0 0 0.00

EXTRAS (LB-3, NB-1, W-9) 13

TOTAL (for five wickets, 19.4 overs) 209

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-150 (Shan), 2-168 (Rizwan), 3-181 (Rossouw), 4-191 (David), 5-191 (Maqsood).

DID NOT BAT: Imran Tahir, Ihsanullah, Imran Khan Sr, Shahnawaz Dahani

BOWLING: Shaheen Shah Afridi 4-0-40-3 (1w); Zaman Khan 4-0-41-0 (1w); Samit Patel 1-0-19-0; Haris Rauf 3.4-0-46-1 (1w, 1nb); David Wiese 3-0-32-0 (1w); Rashid Khan 4-0-28-1 (1w)

RESULT: Multan Sultans won by five wickets.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Shan Masood (Multan Sultans)

UMPIRES: Ahsan Raza (Pakistan) and Richard Illingworth (England)

TV UMPIRE: Faisal Afridi (Pakistan)

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Javed (Pakistan)

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2022