Quetta Gladiators batter Jason Roy shined the brightest on Monday as he sailed his team to a seven-wicket victory against Lahore Qalandars in the 15th match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) at the National Stadium in Karachi.
Jason Roy’s century steered the Quetta Gladiators to a nail-biting victory as he smashed 19 boundaries — 11 fours and eight sixes.
Both James Vince and Roy continued to punish the bowlers and make the clash one-sided. Vince hit 49 off just 38 balls with five fours. No bowler of Qalandars was able to hold the charged Roy from sending the balls to the boundary.
Gladiators chased down the 205-run target posted by Qalandars in 19.3 overs at the cost of just three wickets.
Roy was the top scorer of the match as he made 116 runs off 57 balls. Meanwhile, Mohammad Nawaz scored 25 runs off 12 deliveries. Among bowlers, Haris Rauf, Kamran Ghulam, and David Wiese managed to take one wicket each.
Lahore’s innings
Fakhar Zaman’s half-century helped Qalandars put up an impressive score on the board, handing Gladiators a 205-run target.
Shaheen Shah Afridi had been put to bat first after losing the toss, but the decision bore fruit as the Qalandars were able to score over 200 for the loss of five wickets.
Fakhar made 70 runs off 45 balls, with the help of three fours and three sixes, while Abdullah Shafiq smashed 32 off 27 balls with the help of one four and two sixes.
The fall of wickets began in the eighth over when Ghulam Mudassir picked up the first and crucial wicket of Abdullah (32), who was on a roll with his opening partner Fakhar.
In the 12th over, Iftikhar Ahmed took the wicket of Kamran Ghulam (19), piling up pressure on the Qalandars.
Mohammad Hafeez was the third man to go for eight off four balls and the man to dismiss him was Mudassir. The fourth scalp of Philip Salt (8) was taken by Luke Wood. Meanwhile, Mudassir bowled Fakhar (70) in the 17th over. Both Qalandars and Gladiators were playing their fifth fixture today.
