Raza, Lahore Qalandars slide further down

SIKANDAR Raza and his two-time Pakistan Super League (PSL) champions Lahore Qalandars, on Tuesday night lost their sixth consecutive tie in a competition where they are defending champions.

With the 60-run defeat they suffered at the hands of high flying Multan Sultans on Tuesday evening, Raza and Lahore Qalandars are virtually out of the title race with the first leg of the tournament having come to an end.

Raza and his Qalandars franchise remain rooted at the bottom of the six team standing with no points to their name while Multan Sultans moved to 10 and maintained their position at the top of the standings.

In their Tuesday game, Qalandars were asked to bowl first and the Chevrons stalwart picked up his second wicket of the tournament as they restricted their opponents to 214/4 in 20 overs before going on to crumble to 154 runs all out in 17 overs.

In the ninth over, Raza picked up the wicket of the dangerous Reeza Hendricks, having him caught behind for 40 runs off 27 deliveries. That was his only wicket in the match and would finish his innings with figures of 1/20 in his two-over spell. He was one of the three bowlers who managed to pick up a wicket in their heavy defeat.

Their skipper, Shaheen Shah Afridi, finished with figures of 2/39 in his four overs, while the other wicket was taken by Windies legend Carlos Brathwaitte. Usman Khan top scored for Multan Sultans with a brilliant 96 runs off 55 deliveries while Hendricks and Iftikhar Ahmed both cupped in with 40, with the latter remaining undefeated having faced only 18 balls.

Raza moved up the batting order to come in at number five, having batted down at number seven in their match against Peshawar Zalmi on Sunday.

Needing to get it right with the bat and regain his form, Raza batted with intent, striking at 242.85, scoring 17 runs off just seven balls before he was caught by Hendricks off the bowling of Faisal Akram, bringing his quick fire innings to an end.

Sahibzada Farhan top scored for Lahore Qalandars with 31 runs off 21 deliveries, while Rassie van der Dussen chipped in with 30 runs after facing 22 deliveries. The only other batter that managed to score more runs than the Zimbabwean T20 skipper was Fakhar Zaman – who fell for 23 runs off 16 balls.

Multan Sultans’ Usama Mir made history by becoming the first spinner to pick up six wickets in an innings in the history of the PSL. The leg-spinner showed wizardry, finishing with figures of 6/40 in his four over spell.

As results have not been coming their way, it will be back to the drawing board for Raza and Lahore Qalandars who are only left with four matches and the maximum points they can get is eight – if they win all their remaining games.

Next up for the defending champions is a clash against Quetta Gladiators on Saturday. Quetta Gladiators are also part of the leading pack alongside Multan Sultans and Peshawar Zalmi.

Raza is not the only Chevrons player in the ninth edition of the PSL. Blessing Muzarabani is in the books of Karachi Kings, however, the lanky fast bowler is yet to play a single match. Muzarabani was part of the Andy Flower coached Multan Sultans team that won the title in 2021.-@brandon_malvin