LAHORE – Karachi Kings beat Lahore Qalandars by two wickets in the 10th Pakistan Super League (PSL) Season 9 match at Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday evening.
Chasing a 176-run target for victory, Karachi Kings crossed the finishing line on the last ball of the match with two wickets in hand. After losing four wickets in the powerplay with just 44 runs on the board, veteran Shoaib Malik and Kieron Pollard steadied the ship and put the Kings back on track with a 95-run partnership. Qalandars come back strongly by removing both the set batters in the 16th and 17th overs. Cameos from Hasan Ali and Irfan Khan Niazi helped the Kings achieve the target on the match’s last ball. Kieron Pollard was the top scorer with 58 runs followed by Shoaib Malik who scored 39. Mohammad Nawaz made 15 runs, Irfan Khan Niazi 12, Shan Masood 10 and Hasan Ali nine runs. Zaman Khan and Ahsan Hafeez bagged two wickets each while Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Jahandad Khan took one wicket each. Kieron Pollard was named player of the match.
After being asked to bat first by Kings skipper Shan Masood, Qalandars managed to post 175/6 despite losing key wickets early and relatively low scoring rate during the first half of the innings. Sahibzada Farhan was the top scorer with 72 runs followed by Rassie van der Dussen and George Linde who made 26 runs each. Shai Hope made 21 and Jahandad Khan 12 runs. No other batter could reach the double figures. Hassan Ali, Mir Hamza and Tabraiz Shamsi bagged two wickets each.
Lahore Qalandars Playing XI: Fakhar Zaman, Sahibzada Farhan, Rassie van der Dussen, Shai Hope (wk), Sikandar Raza, George Linde, Ahsan Hafeez Bhatti, Jahandad Khan, Shaheen Afridi (c), Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan
Karachi Kings Playing XI: Shan Masood (c), Mohammad Akhlaq (wk), James Vince, Shoaib Malik, Kieron Pollard, Mohammad Nawaz, Irfan Khan Niazi, Daniel Sams, Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza, Tabraiz Shamsi
