The bowlers from Lahore Qalandars and the hitters from Islamabad United competed in this match. Yet, the bowlers from Qalandars and the hitters from United just have no match.
In the strongest declaration of intent, the Qalandars destroyed the two-time winners, destroying their bowling lineup, and posting 200.
But, they had kept their best for last, taking apart the most illustrious batting order in PSL history and skipping them out for 90 runs in the second innings. It is the second-heaviest loss in PSL history overall.
After a thrilling win over Peshawar Zalmi the day before, Qalandars maintained their momentum at home. Even though it wasn’t known whether this city would be able to host any more PSL games this season until only 24 hours ago, the reigning champions now seem to have a much more ruthless sense of purpose.
With 56 on the powerplay, Fakhar Zaman and Tahir Baig got them off to a more successful start than they had yesterday.
In front of just another full house in Lahore, United continued to work hard to try and stop the Qalandars. When Shadab Khan scored in his opening over, Tom Curran dismissed Fakhar in the following over to send both openers home.
Even so, Qalandars kept hammering away with the bat. The middle order gained another dimension thanks to Sam Billings, and the game really got away from United during a tense stand with Abdullah Shafique.
To boost the pace, both batsmen smashed four boundaries together in Shadab’s third over, and Shafique then destroyed Zeeshan Zameer for 18 runs in his second over. Billings and Shafique contributed 71 runs in 39 balls, setting up Qalandars for a thrilling conclusion.
It was given by Sikandar Raza, David Wiese, and Rashid Khan. Abrar Ahmed struck for 21, signaling the beginning of the final few overs, but Raza and Rashid put on a valuable late combination to push Qalandars’ to the total of 200 runs.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s typically fast start put Qalandars under pressure for the first four overs. Following a 14-run over from Shaheen Shah Afridi in which ten of those runs were wides, Zaman Khan was hit over cow corner for a big six in the fourth over.
Zaman damaged United, which caused a collapse, just when the pursuit seemed to be on track. At the final ball of the fourth over, he dove to his left and dismissed Gurbaz.
Then, with Qalandars overpowering United with the quality and quantity of their wicket-taking bowlers, United shockingly collapsed to lose their ten wickets for 49 runs.
In order to end the match, Wiese took the wickets of three middle-order batsmen: Colin Munro, Shadab, and Azam Khan. Rassie van der Dussen was caught off guard in the meantime by Haris Rauf, who spoke beautifully slowly.
However, they still had to cope with Rashid’s minor issue. The Afghan was normally impossible to play; United couldn’t handle his cunning combination of topspinners, flippers, and googlies. With three wickets, including a run-out, in one over, Raza would put the finishing touches on the victory.
Their hold on this trophy only seems to be getting tighter now that Lahore has been officially announced as the host city for the playoffs and final.