Qalandars register 3rd PSL-5 victory

LAHORE: Lahore Qalandars were on fire in the 23rd match of the Pakistan Super League 2020 against Karachi Kings here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday night.

Chasing a big ask, Qalandars cantered to one of their big wins of the tournament with Ben Dunk playing his part as an unsung hero with the support of Sohail Akhtar at the other end.

Karachi Kings set a target of 188 runs for Lahore Qalandars, which they achieved in a whirlwind fashion. Kings scored 187 for five and in their reply Lahore Qalandars scored 190 for two in 19.1 overs, winning the match by eight wickets.

Lahore Qalandars who were one down for two and two down at 50, found a saviour in Ben Dunk and Sohail Akhtar.

At that point in time everybody were expecting the Qalandars would sink yet again but Qalandar’s captain and Dunk smashed every bowler and the ball thrown their way.

The two turned the tide on Kings with Dunk remaining one run shy of his century that came of 40 balls. In his stride to Qalandars’ win, Dunk surpassed his own PSL record of highest number of sixes hit when he smashed Mohamamd Amir for his 11th six at square leg in the 18th over. In all he pulled 12 sixes and three fours while his partner Sohail Akhtar in his 68 runs that came off 46 balls, saw the ball rolling six times off his bat for four and twice over the ropes. Dunlk finished the match with style as he smashed the winning six off Delport straight for a six.

Qalandars lost their opener Fakhar Zaman for a duck on the last ball of Mohammad Amir’s first over and when the score reached 50, Mohammad Hafeez became the second victim of Kings. Umer Khan was the bowler who took Hafeez’s wickets at 16 in 24 balls.

Alex Hales was the star from Kings lineup as he scored unbeaten 80 runs off 48 balls while Walton and Baber Azam were the other top scorers of the team with 45 and 38 runs respectively. Walton smashed five sixes and two fours as he faced 20 balls. Babar in his 24 balls innings hit six boundaries.

The fifth wicket partnership of 93 between Alex Hales and Walton damaged the Qalandars attack getting the score in just 39 balls.

Qalandars emerging bowler Maaaz Khan chipped in with two wickets while Salman Irshad had one while two were run outs.

Karachi Kings have won back to back games in PSL 2020 before their previous game got abandon due to rain. They failed to gain consistency in their performances at the time when play-off dates are approaching near.

So far, they have defeated Peshawar Zalmi twice and once they outclassed Islamabad United. Kings are coming out with a great team effort due to which the other teams are finding difficulty in defeating them.

On the other hand, Lahore Qalandars looks pretty miserable in this edition of the tournament. They are consistently performing poor in every respective department of the game.

None of their players has managed to find their grooves due to which Qalandars have suffered.

Lahore Qalandars captain Sohail Akhtar won the toss and chose to field. Karachi made one change to their XI coming off their washed out match against Multan Sultans as Mitchell McClenaghan moved out of the line-up for the incoming Cameron Delport.

Lahore have made two changes following their win over Quetta. Usman Shinwari and Maaz Khan enter the XI while Dilbar Hussain and Raja Farzan sit out.