Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWAN all-rounder Sikandar Raza missed his team’s last preliminary round fixture of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) when the Lahore Qalandars suffered a heavy 86 runs defeat at the hands of the Karachi Kings on Sunday.
Raza missed out on the match alongside team captain Shaheen Shah Afridi and their Qalandars side saw their opponents post 196/7 in 20 overs before they went on to be bowled out for 110 runs in 18.5 overs to close off their round robin games on a low.
However, the defeat had no effect on their impressive season so far as they had already booked their place in the play-offs of the eighth edition of the PSL. The defending champions play against Andy Flower’s big hitting Multan Sultans tomorrow in what promises to be an interesting game of cricket.
In Sunday’s encounter, Kings’ opener, Muhammad Akhlaq put up a Player of the Match performance with the bat after striking his first ever PSL half century before he fell for 51 runs off 36 deliveries to help guide his side to just their third victory of the season. Skipper Imad Wasim fell five runs short of his half ton on 45 runs from 31 balls while Tayyab Tahir made 40 runs from 23 balls as their team posted a decent total after electing to bat first.
Zaman Khan, Haris Rauf and Hussain Talat all took two wickets each for the defending champions with Talat registering the best figures of 2/24 in his three over spell. Khan and Rauf gave away 39 and 52 runs respectively in four overs each.
Qalandars’ chase got off to a bad start after losing an early wicket of Fakhar Zaman for 13 runs in the third over of their innings and his opening partner, Abdullah Shafique followed with just two runs on the board.
Talat went on to register the highest score in their chase with 25 runs while Rauf contributed 18 runs from 14 balls as the Qalandars failed to get off with the bat and suffered their third defeat in 10 matches.
Imad Wasim, Akif Javed, Mohammad Umar and Imran Tahir all took two wickets each for the Kings while James Fuller had one.
As Raza and the Qalandars head into tomorrow’s make or break tie, they will be hoping that one of their star players, Afghanistan leg spinner Rashid Khan will be fit after he retired hurt, having been hit on the helmet. However, they will also be looking at making the most of the home advantage as the match is scheduled to take place in Lahore. — @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter