Wicket behaved unexpectedly: Rizwan

LAHORE: Multan Sultans skipper Mohammad Rizwan has said that the wicket behaved strangely in Multan on Wednesday night.

“Things were happening contrary to our expectations,” he said after his team downed Lahore Qalandars by five wickets in a tight finish in the HBL PSL 9 match at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

This was the third straight win for Multan and third successive loss for Lahore Qalandars who won the trophy the last two seasons.

“We were not expecting that it would seam and swing early on. It’s okay that the ball was swinging but it was also seaming,” Rizwan said. Mohammad Rizwan hit a solid 82 and Iftikhar Ahmed’s blistering 11-ball 34 not out in the end enabled Multan Sultans to achieve the 167-run target with six balls to spare.

Iftikhar hammered five fours and two sixes in his stunning knock. “When we were going to bat Iftikhar told us that if we don’t lose wickets in the powerplay then later on the wicket could improve and it would benefit us,” Rizwan said.

“Later if you see spin also started and difficult things were going on in the middle. It was not what we were expecting,” Rizwan said. “In the start there was seam and in the middle spin started but in the end God helped us and the things became easy for us,” the skipper said.

“When our bowlers were bowling the turn was not that much and I think dew fell later and George Linde started getting break and in the middle we got runs. We were not expecting such things. Yes, it was in our plan if we go to the death overs we will be able to manage the things and we were going with a positive intent but things were happening against our expectations,” Rizwan said.

He praised Iftikhar for the way he finished the game with a blistering 11-ball 34 not out. “Iftikhar is one of the best finishers in the world. Khushdil Shah did not get a chance.

The players are performing as per their roles and it’s great for us,” Rizwan said. He said that dropped catches is a concern not only for Multan but for most of the teams, adding for the betterment of Pakistan cricket this zone needs more focus and improvement.

Rassie van der Dussen (54) and Fakhar Zaman (41) guided Lahore Qalandars to 166-5 in the allotted 20 overs. Multan Sultans then chased the target with six balls to spare with Rizwan smacking nine fours and three sixes in his 59-ball 82. Iftikhar punished Zaman Khan in the 19th over which yielded 24 runs, hitting the right-armer for two sixes and three fours after he bowled a dot first delivery.