LAHORE: Lahore Qalandars surprised Quetta Gladiators yet again second time on trot in the 21st match of the Pakistan Super League season 5, here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday night. The defending champions had set a target of a paltry 99 runs for the Qalandars, which they achieved for the loss of two wickets. In response to Quetta’s 98 for nine, Qalandars scored 100 runs in 11.5 overs, with 49 balls to spare. The pace and spin duo of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Samit Patel blew away the Gladiator upper order on a wicket that was quite difficult to play after overnight and morning rain and later Raja Faizan penetrated through in the middle and lower middle order. They threw Quetta Gladiators in a sink hole deep enough not seen before in the history of PSL, and by a team which too is struggling to find its footing in the league.
On a wicket producing lot of turn and spin not in inches but in feet, the Qalandars demolished the Quetta top order, reducing them to 21 for six. The total of Quetta was only possible when played nearly run a ball 32 runs innings. The only other batsmen who reached the double figures were Zahid Mahmood 19 not out, Mohammad Nawaz (10) while Muhammad Husain was another not out player. In Quetta’s innings even the big names like Jason Roy, Shane Watson, Ahmed Shahzad, Sarfraz Ahmed, Azam Khan and Ben Cutting shivered out to oblivion. There were three ducks while another five of their batsmen failed to reach double figures.
Sohail Khan in his 35 balls innings hit four boundaries including two sixes while Zahid in his 19 ball unbeaten stay got two fours. Patel came with a variation in his spin, which Gladiators completely failed to read. He finished his four-over spell with figures of four wickets for just five runs. The left-arm journeyman was able to extract Shane Warne-like legspin from the wicket, troubling everyone and bamboozling Jason Roy for one of the dismissals of the tournament. His other victims were Sarfraz, Azam and Cutting. Shaheen chipped in with the wickets of Watson and Shehzad while Faizan trapped Nawaz and Fawad and Salman Irshad got the prized wicket of Sohail Patel and went on to build on the foundation laid by Shaheen, on which the entire team rode to a comfortable win.
In their chase, Qalandars lost the wickets of their openers Fakhar Zaman at 20 and Sohail Akhtar at 5 but Mohammad Hafeez and Ben Dunk surpassed the target with ease getting 39 and 30 runs respectively. Hafeez scored four fours and a six and faced 32 balls while Dunk with three fours and a six faced 21 balls. Mohammad Nawaz was the only wicket taker from Quetta attack.
Brief scores: Lahore Qalandars 100 for 2 (Hafeez 39) beat Quetta Gladiators 98 for 9 (Patel 4-5) by eight wickets.
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