Multan Sultans down Lahore Qalandars by 5 wickets

LAHORE: Multan Sultans defeated Lahore Qalandars by five wickets to notch up their first win of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday night.

In the inaugural match of Lahore leg, Multan Sultans skipper Shan Masood won the toss and put Lahore Qalandars into bat on a wicket which seemed full of runs. Lahore managed 138 for 8 in 20 overs and Multan answered with 142 for 5 in 16.1 overs. Shan Masood held together the innings and kept his team well on path of run chase with a steady and responsible 38 runs knock consuming 29 balls, hitting four fours and one six before the visiting team lost opener James Vince (18) at 24 and Moeen Ali (11) at 43.However, Shan kept the one end alive with smart hitting to all parts of the ground and together with Rilee Rossouw posted 42 runs for the third wicket.

Shan was the third batsman out at 85 and Multan found it closer to hunt a low victory title. Rilee (32), the fifth batsman out, played 28 balls to force two fours and one six to put his team at the threshold of victory before Zeehan Ashraf made just four runs, the fourth batsman out.

The arrival of slogger, veteran Shahid Afridi speeded up the run chase as he hit enterprising unbeaten 21 with two fours and one six in 12 balls to accomplish the victory target. Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and David Wiese took one wicket each for 18, 40 and 11 runs from Lahore.

Earlier Lahore were off to a firm start as openers Fakhar Zaman and Chirs Lynn produced 59 runs for the opening stand before a charged crowd. But all of sudden things turned worse for the home side which met a dramatic top and middle order collapse which left them 1 for 59, 2 for 60, and 3 for 63. Top scorer, opener Lynn was out after making 39 with four fours and three sixes in 19 balls at a grand total of 59 and one run later Fakhar departed and at a total of 63 Lahore lost the third wicket of Ben Dunk (3) and the home side found it hard to reunite its batting to salvage its pride with rivals bowlers in control.

Lahore captain Sohail Akhtar played captain’s fighting knock of 34 off 20 balls laced with one four and three sixes in the role of second top scorer. Wicketkeeper batsman Dane Vilas supported the side with 19 runs as Lahore’s four batsmen Ben Dunk (3), David Weise (3), Shaheen Afridi (2) and Haris Rauf (0) batted without application and failed to progress to double figures. Muhammad Hafeez scored 14 runs.

Man of the match Imran Tahir finished with two for 21, Muhammad Ilyas took two wickets for 16, Moeen Ali got two for 13 and Sohail Tanvir claimed one wicket for 36 runs.