United thrash Qalandars in Super-Over thriller

SHARJAH: It's the first time in the PSL history that super over was played to decide the fantastic contest as the twelfth Twenty20 match between Islamabad United and Lahore Qalandars was a tie here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday night.

Undoubtedly, it was the game of the tournament in which Islamabad United was declared winner  against Lahore Qalandars who could not win even a single match so far in this Pakistan Super League (PSL) third edition.

Lahore Qalandars seemed to overturn their poor start in the tournament as they restricted Islamabad United to a mere 121 runs in 20-over thriller in the third edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL)

At one stage during the chase, Qalandars  required just 45 off 52 balls with eight wickets in hand. Unfortunately, they could not maintain a sensible approach to achieve the target as they hardly reached 121 for a  Super-Over thriller   with a six by debutant Salman Irshad, while chasing 16 in the Super Over, Andre Russell scored 10 off the last two balls by  hitting one six and a four to dawn Lahore Qalandars.

After being sent into bat, Islamabad made a disastrous start losing both the openers for only 18 runs on the board. Then they could not be recovered as their wickets were falling at regular intervals and set mere 121 runs for nine wickets.

Only Jean-Paul Duminy provided some resistance with a 36-ball 34 and at the later stage, Hussain Talat made an unbeaten hard-hitting 33 from 21 balls with two towering sixes and a four.

Leg-spinner Yasir Shah was the most successful bowler for Lahore Qalandars, grabbing three wickets for 20 runs while fast bowler Sohail Khan claimed two for 23.

Young Kasmiri player Salman Irshad has made his debut for the Qalandars as Shaheen Afridi has been dropped while the United dropped three players: Chadwick Walton, Steven Finn and Rumman Raees.