KARACHI: With ferocious hitters Asif Ali and Azam Khan present at the crease with Islamabad United needing 12 to win off the last over, it needed an extraordinary effort to hold them from the man bowling it for Lahore Qalandars.

Asif facing, Zaman started off with a full ball on off stump, one run. The pacer from Mirpur, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, followed it up with a wide before Azam returned Asif the strike with a single.

The next delivery — a short one outside off and a slower one in the same region — was a dot before Asif holed the fifth to David Wiese at long-off.

Zaman ended the over with a yorker which Faheem Ashraf could only block as the Qalandars completed an eight-run victory over United in their HBL Pakistan Super League match here at the National Stadium on Saturday.

United’s in-form skipper Shadab Khan (52) and Colin Munro (60) had provided their side with the platform but it wasn’t enough as Shaheen Shah Afridi’s side registered their third win.

After a partnership between Qalandars openers Fakhar Zaman and Abdullah Shafique and later Harry Brook and David Wiese led them to 174, United lost Alex Hales (11) and Paul Stirling (14) by the end of the fifth over with the score reading 38-2.

Munro, who had hit Mohammad Hafeez for two boundaries in the third over, smashed the veteran all-rounder for two maximums in the sixth.

Shadab announced his arrival with a six over long-of off Zaman in the eighth over before taking on Rashid Khan for the same result in the next over.

Kamran Ghulam’s 10th over saw Munro hitting a four and a six and Shadab getting another six. They even tool on Haris Rauf, with Shadab hitting another four and a six and by the end of the 13th over, Islamabad were cruising, needing 52 to win off 42.

Shaheen and Rashid Khan pulled the brakes in the next two overs before the duo combined to send back Shadab, who found the Shaheen on the midwicket fence of Rashid, bringing an end to his 100-run partnership with Munro.

The New Zealander followed six balls later when a top edge off Haris found Zaman.

Shaheen and Haris tightened the screw on Azam and Asif, giving away just a four and a six in the next two overs before Zaman finished the job, leaving Shadab and his men deflated after they had done well to restrict the Qalandars.

An eight-over spin bowling marathon between Shadab and Mubasir Khan broke the Qalandars’ rhythm set by Fakhar (38) and Abdullah (44).

Coming in to bowl in the seventh after Lahore had posted 73-0 in the powerplay, Mubasir bowled the first boundary-less over of the innings, conceding only four runs.

Abdullah, it seemed, was confident about dealing with the turning ball when he hit a cracking six over extra cover to welcome Shadab into the attack in the eighth.

But the next 28 balls saw five Qalandars wickets fall.

The first breakthrough came for when Shadab made the Abdullah take a conventional leg-break for a googly and drag it onto his stumps in an attempt to sweep.

Mubasir returned to bowl Kamran as the right-hander miscued a pull shot off the off-spinner as the ball rose high in the air before landing in Munro’s safe hands.

The following over saw Shadab’s googly get the better of Fakhar, who totally misjudged it while going for a slog sweep to find Mubasir at deep midwicket.

Only three runs came off Mubasir in the next over before Shadab struck twice in the 12th to send Mohammad Hafeez and Phil Salt back to the pavilion.

Hafeez played an uppish cut to Stirling at point before Salt miscued a pull to find Asif at short midwicket to make way for Brook (37) and Wiese (20) who salvaged a total to defend for the Qalandars.

Wiese cut Mubasir while Brook swept away Shadab for fours in the last two spin-bowling overs before they completed Lahore’s recovery from early jitters, when they hit Hasan Ali for 18 runs in the 17th with Brook hitting the Pakistan pacer for four fours in a row.

Their 51-run partnership ended when Waqas Maqsood’s bouncer made Wiese sky it up for wicket-keeper Azam to take an easy catch.

Waqas went on to take three more wickets in the last over to finish with figures of 4-35 after Rashid hit a six and four off Mohammad Wasim in the penultimate over.

Scoreboard

LAHORE QALANDARS:

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

Fakhar Zaman c Mubasir b Shadab 38 27 4 1 140.74

Abdullah Shafique b Shadab 44 24 6 1 183.33

Kamran Ghulam c Munro b Mubasir 1 4 0 0 25.00

Mohammad Hafeez c Stirling b Shadab 5 11 0 0 45.45

Phil Salt c Asif b Shadab 2 3 0 0 66.66

Harry Brook c Hasan b Waqas 37 26 5 0 142.30

David Wiese c Azam b Waqas 20 14 3 0 142.85

Rashid Khan not out 15 8 1 1 187.50

Shaheen Shah Afridi c Azam b Waqas 4 2 1 0 200.00

Haris Rauf c Shadab b Waqas 0 1 0 0 0.00

Zaman Khan not out 0 0 0 0 -

EXTRAS (W-7, LB-1) 8

TOTAL (for nine wickets, 20 overs) 174

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-83 (Abdullah), 2-86 (Kamran), 3-93 (Fakhar), 4-97 (Hafeez), 5-98 (Salt), 6-149 (Wiese), 7-167 (Brook), 8-172 (Shaheen), 9-172 (Haris).

BOWLING: Hasan 3-0-43-0 (5w), Faheem 2-0-17-0, Mohammad 3-0-39-0 (1w), Waqas 4-0-35-4 (1w), Mubasir 4-0-19-1, Shadab 4-0-20-4.

ISLAMABAD UNITED:

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

Paul Stirling c Salt b Zaman 14 10 2 1 140.00

Alex Hales c Fakhar b Shaheen 11 8 1 1 137.50

Colin Munro c Zaman b Haris 60 45 5 3 133.33

Shadab Khan c Shaheen b Rashid 52 32 2 4 162.50

Azam Khan not out 10 12 1 0 83.33

Asif Ali c Wiese b Zaman 14 12 0 1 116.66

Faheem Ashraf not out 0 1 0 0 0.00

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-3) 5

TOTAL (for five wickets, 20 overs) 166

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16 (Hales), 2-37 (Stirling), 3-137 (Shadab), 4-140 (Munro), 5-166 (Asif)

DID NOT BAT: Mubasir Khan, Mohammad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Waqas Maqsood.

BOWLING: Shaheen 4-0-24-1 (2w), Zaman 4-0-21-1 (1w), Hafeez 2-0-23-0, Haris 4-0-41-2, Rashid 4-0-21-1, Kamran 1-0-17-0, Wiese 1-0-9-0.

RESULT: Lahore Qalandars won by eight runs.

UMPIRES: Waleed Yaqoob (Pakistan) and Michael Gough (England).

TV UMPIRE: Ahsan Raza (Pakistan).

MATCH REFEREE: Iftikhar Ahmed (Pakistan).

PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Zaman Khan (Lahore Qalandars).

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2022