PSL | Shambolic Islamabad collapse hands eliminated Lahore maiden victory in the season

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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With their elimination confirmed by Karachi's win over Quetta earlier in the day, Lahore Qalandars rode on the back of Rassie vd Dussen's half-century and an exceptional bowling performance to seize victory by 17 runs in Rawalpindi. A win would have propelled Islamabad United to second in the table.

‌Brief score: LQ 162/7 [Rassie 64(44), Afridi 30(14); Raees 2/19 (3)] beat IU 145 (18.5) [Ashraf 41*(31), Azam 29(19); Zaman 4/37 (3.5)] by 17 runs

Naseem Shah returned to cricket after a long-term injury with an exhibition of outswing bowling, resulting in maiden opening over against Sahibzada Farhan which set the tone for the powerplay. His brother Husnain Shah capitalized on the pressure to dispatch the opener after an abhorrent 12-ball 2 and Rumman Raees extended Fakhar Zaman's lean run in the tournament to leave Lahore reeling at 26/2 after six overs. When Shai Hope holed out off Imad Wasim four balls later, skipper Shaheen Afridi took an unprecdented bold step to promote himself to number five. The decision reaped great rewards as the 23-year-old struck four lusty blows in a 14-ball cameo of 30 to inject some impetus into Lahore's batting efforts. However, no other batter thereafter could capitalize as wickets continued to tumble, bar a resilient Rassie van der Dussen who soldiered through the innings to bring up a 34-ball half-century. The Proteas finally found some aid in the death through David Wiese's big levers as the Namibian rattled off 24 runs in 11 ball to take the side to a defendable 162/7.

Now with the ball in hand, Afridi's knack for first over wickets came to the fore once again as Alex Hales miscued an attempted heave after Colin Munro had began the chase with back-to-back boundaries. Zaman Khan further made things worse for Islamabad by scalping Agha Salman and Shadab Khan in successive overs for single-digit scores, the latter undone by a corker, before Munro was sent packing in search for a tricky third run. David Wiese added to the pressure by getting Imad Wasim to nick off a full delivery straight to short third-man on the last ball of the powerplay and Jordan Cox holed out five balls to later as United suddenly found themselves staggering at 38/6. Azam Khan threatened to rveive the chase with a quickfire 19-ball 29 but once he succumbed in the 11th over, the game was all but over. Naseem struck Afridi for back-to-back sixes in the death in a 16-ball 27 to keep the game alive and Faheem Ashraf bordered on a heroic match-winning knock but ultimately ran out of partners 18 runs short of the target.

First victory

Finally

Huge loss

100 for him

First of the tournament

Losing streak

6, 6 , out

Class

Great player

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