Quetta expose chinks in Lahore’s armour

DUBAI: Lahore Qalandars will have to quickly get their act together or risk yet another embarrassment at the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

A team high on star power and low on achievement, Lahore crumbled in the first two editions of the PSL. The script hasn’t changed for them in the current season either, at least not yet.

On Saturday night, Lahore crashed to their second straight defeat in PSL 3 once again exposing big chink in their armour. Losing your first two games in a league isn’t the end of the world but it’s the way they have surrendered that should be a big cause of concern for the Lahore management. Against Quetta Gladiators, Lahore turned out to be mere pushovers as Sarfraz Ahmed and his men just cruised to a nine wicket triumph with 36 balls to spare.

And that happened despite the fact that Lahore were given a lightning start by Sunil Narine and skipper Brendon McCullum. Narine smashed Shane Watson for 24 runs in an over during his brief cameo as Lahore raced to 45 in three overs. But from there it was all downhill for the Qalandars as the Gladiators tightened the noose restricting their opponent to 119-9. McCullum was the top-scorer with 30 while Narine smashed 28 off just 10 balls with two sixes and four fours. Sohail Akhtar chipped in with 20.

For Quetta, it was left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz (2-4), who did the damage along with Barbadian medium pacer Jofra Archer (3-23).

Nawaz’s introduction dried up the singles altogether. Bowling a tight, unrelenting line and varying his pace adroitly, Nawaz rendered the batsmen helpless. In a stunning four-over spell, he accounted for the dangerous McCullum and Cameron Delport, conceding just four runs - the most economical spell ever in the PSL.

In the run-chase, Quetta didn’t even take any calculated risks as Shane Watson and Asad Shafiq took them towards their first win this season.

Watson was in devastating form, and Asad at the other end was the perfect foil to him. Watson took Narine for 21 runs in the seventh over, and after that Quetta were coasting. With scoreboard pressure non-existent, Quetta played as they wanted. In the end, the straight drive that sealed the win was a merciful end to a rotten day for Lahore. —with inputs from agencies