KARACHI: Lahore Qalandars’ opener Fakhar Zaman, single-handedly shepherded his team to win a crucial match against Karachi Kings by six wickets as he hit a century in second-round fixture of the HBL PSL 2022 at the National Stadium on Sunday. With the defeat, Kings has lost three-straight matches in the league.
In his 106 runs off 60 balls knock, Fakhar smashed as many as 12 fours and four sixes to steer Lahore chase the 171-run target with four balls to spare after losing four wickets in the process. This was also the first century from Fakhar in his PSL career and his second in T20 career with his previous best being 100 not out. This is also the first century of this event. Fakhar, who had also hit a solid half century in the previous game, brought in fifty off 33 balls and his hundred came off 56 deliveries.
Fakhar dominated the 74 runs fourth wicket stand with Samit Patel. In the last over from Lewis Gregory Lahore needed six runs. After bowling a wide ball, English all-rounder Samit Patel hit Gregory for two successive fours to bring in a fine win. Samit remained not out on 18-ball 26 with four fours. Following a breezy start Lahore lost Abdullah Shafique, excellently held in the deep by Aamer Yamin off spinner Mohammad Nabi. He scored run-a-ball eight which carried one four.
Lanky pacer Umaid Asif then got rid of Kamran Ghulam (6), caught brilliantly by Mohammad Nabi at mid-on while leaping in the air. And Lahore were 48-2 in the sixth over.
Fakhar and Hafeez then tried to carry the momentum and shared 42 valuable runs for the third wicket before the latter was removed by Imad Wasim, caught by Babar at wide long-off. Hafeez struck four fours in his 21-ball 24. And then a super fourth wicket stand between Fakhar and Samit did the job for Lahore. However, Fakhar fell when Qalandars needed seven runs to win as he was caught by Imad Wasim in the deep off Umaid Asif.
Umaid Asif was the pick of the bowlers with 2-30 in his quota of four overs. Mohammad Nabi and Imad Wasim captured one wicket each. Fakhar was declared as man of the match.
After being invited to bat first Sharjeel Khan set a perfect momentum with a super 60 off 39 balls, which featured eight fours and three huge sixes, two of which came off David Wiese and also hit spinner Samit Patel for a glorious six into the stands. With a good track record against left-handers, Mohammad Hafeez eventually provided a breakthrough to Lahore when he bowled Sharjeel off his first delivery of his spell. It pitched on the middle and leg, spun a bit before crashing the off-stump of the left-hander.
Sharjeel, fell in the 11th over, added 84 runs in 61 balls for the opening stand with skipper Babar Azam. Sharjeel’s fifty came off 33 balls.
Mohammad Nabi was promoted after the fall of Sharjeel but he failed to play a major knock, falling prey to Mirpur-born right-armer Zaman Khan, held by Shaheen Afridi at long-off. Nabi hit two fours in his 14-ball 15. Soon afterwards Afghanistan’s leg-spinner Rashid Khan clean bowled Babar Azam for 41. Babar went for an onside drive, missed it completely. The skipper hit five fours from 33 balls. And Kings were 122-3 in the 15th over at that stage.
Since then, Kings kept losing wickets at regular intervals and no major partnership was seen until they reached 170-7 in the allotted 20 overs. English wicket-keeper batsman Joe Clarke stayed till the end, hammering an 18-ball 24 not out with two fours that helped Kings post 170-7. Kings scored 48 runs in the powerplay. Their 100 came in 12.2 overs while their 150 in 18.2 overs.
Pacer Haris Rauf, who took two wickets in the final over, finished with 3-33 in his quota of four overs. Rashid (1-24 in 4), Shaheen (1-31 in 4), Zaman (1-39 in 4) and Hafeez (1-4 in 1) were the other successful bowlers.
Earlier Karachi Kings made two changes in their line-up which lost to Quetta Gladiators on Saturday, bringing in Sahibzada Farhan and Umaid Asif in place of Tom Lammonby and Mohammad Imran. Lahore Qalandars remained unchanged. Richard Illingworth and Michael Gough supervised the match. Ranjan Madugalle served as referee.