Karachi Kings lose on home ground against Lahore Qalandars

The Karachi Kings were dealt a defeat on their home ground on Sunday when the Lahore Qalandars chased their 187-run target with six wickets in hand and four balls to spare.

The Kings' Sharjeel Khan (64 off 39 balls) and Mohammad Nabi (57 off 35 balls) were able to steer the side to the sizeable total, after an early set back as the side lost three wickets inside of five overs.

The Qalandars' Shaheen Shah Afridi — who ended up being awarded 'Player of the Match' — took an impressive 3 wickets for 27 runs.

When it was time for them to bat the side were equally brilliant, persistent and steady in their chase, and managed to hold on to six wickets in the process.

Opener Fakhar Zaman with his knock of 83 off 54 provided the impetus needed for the team to follow through after his departure at 17.2 overs, and hit the target.

His efforts were aided by Ben Dunk (57 off 43) and David Wiese (31 off 9).

The build-up to the Karachi Kings-Lahore Qalandars match — dubbed the El Clásico of the PSL 2021 — had been huge to say the least, considering that both sides came in from similar positions, having won two out of their first three encounters.

Defending champions Kings had a slight edge over Qalandars due to better net run rate (NRR) as well as the advantage of the outcome of their face-off last year during the PSL 2020 final in which they defeated Qalandars.

The Qalandars' performance, today, however, showed that in the battle of the nerves, they can easily trounce any opponent.

In total, the two arch-rivals have played 12 matches, of which Karachi Kings bagged seven and Lahore Qalandars has now secured five.