Shaheen Afridi, playing his fourth T20 game, grabbed five wickets for just four runs to help Lahore Qalandars win their first match in PSL 2018. His maiden five-for restricted Multan Sultans to mere 114 and then riding on Brenden McCullum’s cautious 37 not out, Lahore sealed the game in 19th over.
Multan batted first after winning the toss and got off to a solid start. Ahmed Shehzad and Kumar Sangakkara added 61 runs for the first wicket in eight overs. Sunil Narine broke this stand by sending back Sangakkara when he was playing on 45 runs off 30 balls.
Four overs later Shehzad tried to scoop one against Mitchell McClenaghan but only managed to find the gloves of the wicketkeeper. He scored 32 runs off 34 balls. After his departure, Lahore bowlers chipped in with frequent wickets and kept Multan under the scanner.
Shaheen Afridi bowled effectively in death overs and denied any reprieve to the batsmen. He demolished Multan’s lower order and picked up two wickets each in the 16th and 20th over of the innings.
Narine gave able support to Afridi and grabbed two wickets in his four overs. Importantly, he conceded just 16 runs in his spell.
Chasing 115 runs, Lahore started their innings on a high note courtesy of Anton Devcich’s blitzkrieg cameo. The opener smacked 22 runs off 09 balls and scored 33 runs for the first wicket off just 15 balls. Shoaib Malik ended Devcich’s cameo and one over later Imran Tahir forced Fakhar Zaman to offer a catch to Kieron Pollard.
After the demise of openers, Lahore were struggling at 41 for three wickets but then Gulraiz Sadaf and McCullum steadied the ship by adding 53 runs for the fourth wicket. Sadaf was caught by Shehzad on Saif Badar’s bowling when he was on 27 off 40 balls but then Sohail Akhtar, along with McCullum completed the proceedings and registered Lahore’s first win of the league.
