Lahore Qalandars defeat Multan Sultan in a nail biting finish in the final of Pakistan Super League on Saturday at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. A final for the ages and a fitting end to the tournament. Shaheen Afridi wins his 2nd PSL title as captain.
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Lahore Qalandars batting first scored a mammoth 200 runs in the 1st innings. Mirza Baig & Fakhar Zaman laid the platform for the qalandars in the powerplay. The duo added 38 runs to the 1st wicket. Fakhar Zaman and Abdullah Shafique teamed up and continued the onslaught against the Sultan bowlers. They added 57 runs in 38 balls for the 2nd wicket.
Usama Mir dismissed inform Fakhar Zaman for 39 runs in the 12th over. Abdullah Shafique went onto to score match winning fifty in the final. Shafique scored 65 runs in 40 balls smashing 8 fours and 2 sixes. Anwar Ali got the key wicket of Shafique.
Usama Mir gets back to back wickets dismissing Billings and Ahsan Bhatti in successive balls. Qalandars after a good start were struggling at 112/4 at the end of 14 overs. The Lahore Qalandars captain Shaheen Afridi with his team in trouble took the responsibility with the bat.
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Afridi scored quick fire 44 runs in 15 balls smashing 5 sixes and 2 fours at a strike rate of 293.33. His fireworks powered the Lahore Qalandars total to 200 run mark at the end of 20 overs. Usama Mir was the star performer with the ball for the Sultans. Mir registered match figures of 3/24 in 3 overs.
Rizwan & Rossouw lay the platform for the chase
Multan Sultans captain Mohammad Rizwan laid the perfect foundation for the chase. Inform batter Usman Khan played a useful cameo of 18 runs in 12 balls in the powerplay and was rattled up by David Wiese. Multan captain Mohmmad Rizwan and Rilee Rossouw paired up to score 64 runs in 7 overs for the 2nd wicket. Rizwan scored 34 runs in 23 balls. He holed to David Wiese at long on in the bowling of Rashid Khan.
Rashid Khan once again waived his magic as he bamboozles Rilee Rossouw for 52 runs in 32 balls. Rossouw smashed 7 fours and 2 sixes. Multan were 124 runs in 13 overs. with 76 runs needed of the last 7 overs and two big hitters in the form of Kieron Pollard and Tim David, the Sultans were oncourse to chase down the target comfortably.
Pollard and David added 24 runs in 3 overs for the 5th wickets and were looking dangerous. Shaheen Afridi comes back for his 2nd spell and immediately strikes by dismissing the experienced Kieron Pollard for 19 runs.
Multan fell apart from the 16th over to the 18th over. Shaheen Afridi changed the game completely in the 18th over. He picked up the wickets of Tim David, Anwar Ali and Usama Mir in the space of 6 balls. The momentum completely shifted in the favor of Lahore Qalandars.
Lahore Qalandars hold their nerve in the end
With the game almost looked to one sided Abbas Afridi and Khushdil Shah had other plans. Khushdil smashed the 1st ball of the 19th over for six, Abbas Afridi smashed the 3rd ball for six, 4th ball for four, 5th ball for another boundary. The game once again turned on its head. The 22 runs on the 19th over changed the game.
The game was down to 13 runs of 6 balls with the PSL title on the line. For Lahore Qalandars the Zaman Khan had the responsibility of defending the title. Zaman gave away 5 runs in the first four balls. With 8 needing of the last two balls Khushdil Shah smashed the much needed boundary of the 5th ball. Four needed of the final ball Zaman bowled a perfect yorker and Khushdil managed to dig it out to wide long on. Afridi & Khushdil managed run two runs. David Wiese with a perfect throw at the bowlers end wins it for the Qalandars.
Shaheen Afridi won the player of the match award for his match winning performance of 44 runs with the bat and 4 wickets with the ball.
PSL season 8 award winners
Player of the tournament: Ihsanullah won the player of the tournament award. The 20 year old right arm pacer picked up 22 wickets in 12 matches at an average of 15.77.
Batter of the tournament: Mohammad Rizwan ends the tournament as the leading run scorer. Rizwan scored 550 runs in 12 matches at an average of 55.
Bowler of the tournament: Abbas Afridi ends the tournament as the leading wicket taker. He picked up 23 wickets in 11 matches at average of 16.17.
All-rounder of the tournament: Karachi Kings captain Imad Wasim is the all-rounder of the tournament. Wasim scored 404 runs in 10 innings at an average of 134.67 and picked up 9 wickets at an average of 28.22.
Emerging Player of the tournament: Abbas Afridi won the emerging player of the tournament award. His heroics with the ball in the PSL 8 has been phenomenal.
