Sultans ease past Qalandars in Karachi

Multan Sultans overcame Lahore Qalandars in their final league match, of the ongoing HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) in Karachi.

The match was a one sided affair as the Sultans put in a clinical bowling display that restricted Lahore Qalandars to 140. A target of 141 was never going to trouble the Sultan batsman on a pitch bereft of any assistance for the bowlers along with the short boundaries.

Fakhar Zaman started the match with two consecutive fours of Mohammad Abbas. It looked like the viewers were in store for another high-scoring contest. This did not happen as Abbas tightened his lines and along with CJ Green, left Qalandars in all sorts of trouble at the end of the powerplay.

Riki Wessels fell first to a beautiful delivery from CJ Green. Sohail Akhtar soon followed as he tried to up the scoring rate against Abbas.

Shahid Afridi then took over and delivered an inspired spell that accounted for the wickets of Haris Sohail and Fakhar Zaman. Zaman high-scored with a 53 of 36 balls but it was all in vain as Afridi got the better of him, before he could actually push on for a bigger score.

David Wiese provided a bit of impetus with 30 of 22 balls but regular wickets at the other end meant that the Sultans had an iron grip on the proceedings. Qalandars could only manage to set a target of 141 losing 8 wickets in the process. Mohammad Abbas took 3 wickets, while Afridi bagged two.

In response, the Sultans started off at top gear and never held back. What followed was absolute carnage as the Sultans helped themselves to an easy victory.

Umar Siddiq got run out after scoring 13 runs courtesy of Zaman’s brilliance in the fied.

James Vince could not get going as well as he fell for 25 of 14 balls. Shan Masood, however, stole the show with a great display of boundary hitting. He fell for 48 of 25 balls with the job almost done.

Johnson Charles then put the finishing touches on the match by scoring 35 of 21 balls. Meanwhile crowd favourite Afridi smacked the winning runs as the Sultans walked away with an easy win.