KARACHI, Jan 29 (Asia Free Press): The defending champion Multan Sultans in a nail-biting match on Saturday beat Lahore Qalandars by 5 wickets, after Khushdil Shah’s heroic 17 run knock in just four balls against Haris Rauf in the last over oh the 3rd match, HBL PSL 7 at National Stadium Karachi.
Lahore Qaladars, despite losing the toss got to bat first and scored a huge total of 206-5 in 20 overs. The opening batter Fakhar Zaman played a tremendous knock, scoring 76 runs in 35 deliveries, including 11 fours and 2 huge sixes. Kamran Ghulam, a consistent performer in the domestic arena, smashed a good innings of 43 runs facing 31 balls with having 2 fours and 3 massive sixes.
Rashid Khan, at the very end of the Qalandars innings, hit hard to set a high target for Multan Sultans, scoring 17 runs in just 4 deliveries with 2 sixes and one four.
However, Sultans’ bowlers conceded a lot runs, where as Imran Khan conceded 54 runs in his spell without taking any Qalandars’ wicket while David willey, Shah Nawaz Dahani, Imran Tahir, Ihsanullah and Khushdil shah got one wicket each.
Chasing a huge total, Sultans captain Rizwan and Shan Masood made a 150 run opening partnership, which took Sultans close to the target. Rizwan played a captain’s knock as he scored 69 off 42 balls, while Masood, who was also awarded Man of the Match, played blistering innings by scoring 83 runs in just 50 balls. Khushdil, who played sensationally, scored 18 runs in just four balls.
The Qalandar’s bowlers could not perform up to the mark in the early overs; however, they picked up pace in the last five overs taking back-to-back wickets. But in the very last over of the match, Haris Rauf failed to defend 16 runs.
Ahsan Raza and Richard Illingworth were the field upmires where as Faisal Afridi was the TV umpire and Muhammad Javed performed the duty of Match Referee.
