Won’t lose heart, says Shaheen

LAHORE: Lahore Qalandars skipper Shaheen Afridi has said that they will not lose heart and will play good cricket in coming matches as they are still in the event.

“It’s just the start of the event and we will not lose our hopes,” Shaheen said after Lahore Qalandars were beaten by Multan Sultans by five wickets in Multan on Wednesday night. “We still have seven games to play and we are still in the event,” Shaheen said.

“We did well today but in fielding we made lapses and had we grabbed chances we could have got an edge,” he said. He said that they did not execute plans in the death overs which cost them the game.

“We could not execute plans in the death overs and bad fielding hurt us,” he said. He praised Iftikhar for his 11-ball 34 not out knock. “I think Iftikhar and Khushdil are the two best finishers in Pakistan. I am happy that they performed as we need such players for Pakistan,” he said.

Shaheen said that they have played good cricket but they will need to improve fielding which is the only area of concern. Lahore Qalanards scored 166-5 with Rassie van der Dussen (54) and Fakhar Zaman (41) doing a great job with the willow.

Fast bowler Mohammad Ali (2-28) once again bowled really well for Multan. Multan Sultans then rode on the batting heroics of Mohammad Rizwan (82) and Iftikhar Ahmed (11-ball 34 not out) to help Multan race to the target with six balls to spare.