Match Details
Chasing 207 on any kind of attack, on any kind of condition is a job. The job gets easy when the openers give 150 runs worth of stands. But the job remains unfinished until the ropes have been crossed. This game went down to the nerves until the Sultans crossed over the line.
The game saw 415 runs being scored as both the batting lineups had the conditions in their favour. There was no juice for the bowler. Having said that, the Qalandars took the game down to the end... but it wasn’t meant to be for them.
After winning the toss, Mohammad Rizwan asked his opposite number to send his opener to bat first. Lahore Qalandars openers took that challenger as they gave a livid stand before a collapse occurred in the middle-order. However, blistering knocks from Fakhar Zaman and Kamran Ghulam, and cameos from Rashid Khan and David Wiese gave the Qalandars enough runs on board. Enough runs? Alright, that’s questionable as, at one time, the predicted score for Lahore was looking to go well beyond 220. But 207 is no joke.
The onus was on the Sultans’ batting to try its hands at that mammoth total. And oh boy, what a hand they tried. Proving every critic and fan wrong, the Sultans didn’t let the scoreboard pressure get the better of them. Both the openers played stupendously, but Shan Masood was just class apart. And saying just class apart would be an understatement. The southpaw drilled the bowlers all across the field and beyond with his 83. Meanwhile, Rizwan played a second-fiddle, at the SR of 164, in his 69.
The openers shared a stand 0f 150 runs but then came the first twist of many. Rashid bagged Masood. Then some were scored before Rizwan got a corker from Shaheen. A dozen runs later, Rilee Rossow surrendered. Ten runs down, Tim David and Sohaib Maqsood got dusted.
The game then went down to the last over. Multan were required to score 16 more runs with the two absolutely new-batters in the middle. What was scripted next was nothing less than history for Khushdil Shah, Multan Sultan, and Pakistan Super League as well. Shah opened his account with a boundary and followed it with another four before he finished off the game with a whopping six.