LAHORE: Qalandars on Thursday beat Quetta Gladiators by 17 runs in the 18 fixture of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) season eight at the Gaddafi Stadium.
The Gladiators were tasked with chasing a modest 149, but they fell 17 runs short of securing a crucial victory in the ongoing spectacular, putting them in danger of being eliminated early.
The Gladiators’ openers Will Smeed and youthful Yasir Khan gave their team a flying start by scoring 50 runs together during the power-play before the Qalandars received a crucial breakthrough when Haris Rauf removed the latter on 14.
The Gladiators fell to 80/5 in the 14th over as a result of Yasir’s dismissal, which set off a game-changing collapse. At the end they needed 34 in the last two overs but they could only managed to score 131/7 in the allotted 20 overs.
Earlier, the Gladiators won the toss and invited the Qalandars to bat first. They were all out for 148 in 19.2 overs. The Qalandars were in danger of being dismissed for less than 100 runs after slipping to 50-7 against the Gladiators. However, Rashid Khan and Sikandar Raza brought their side back into the contest with a crucial fifty partnership.
Rashid was caught in the deep after scoring 21 runs in 20 balls but not before adding 69 runs in 39 balls with Raza.
It must be noted that the Gladiators bowlers gave their side a perfect start after reducing the Qalandars to 29-4 in the first powerplay.
A direct hit by Umaid Asif sent the in-form Fakhar Zaman (4) back to the hut. Asif also sent Mirza Tahir Baig (2) back to the pavilion.
Meanwhile, Sam Billings and Hussain Talat were dismissed by pacer Naveen-ul-Haq after scoring two and six runs, respectively.
After the early loss of wickets, the Qalandars were hoping that Abdullah Shafique would rescue the side but the right-hander was cleaned up by Nawaz after scoring 15 runs in 14 balls.
Nawaz picked up his second wicket after completing a simple caught and bowled to send David Wiese (2) packing.
Teams:
Quetta Gladiators: Yasir Khan, Martin Guptill, Will Smeed, Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk/c), Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Odean Smith, Umaid Asif, Naseem Shah, Naveen-ul-Haq
Lahore Qalandars: Fakhar Zaman, Mirza Tahir Baig, Sam Billings (wk), Abdullah Shafique, Hussain Talat, Sikandar Raza, Rashid Khan, David Wiese, Shaheen Afridi (c), Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan
