Lahore Qalandars are the champions of Pakistan Super League season 7. The Shaheen Shah Afridi-led team comprehensively defeated Mohammad Rizwan’s Multan Sultans by 42 runs to win their first PSL trophy on Sunday, 27 February.
Defending 181, Lahore reduced Multan to 50/4 in the first 8 overs, which essentially paved their way into the game. However it was not as simple as that. The few overs in the Multan chase were chaotic. Runs were flowing from the bat, the ball was not swinging enough for captain Shaheen Afridi and easy chances were getting dropped behind the wicket.
The captain’s tantrum
Put this in the context that Multan Sultans had just defeated Lahore in the Qualifiers to get their straight ticket into the finals. This got Afridi very frustrated and he just about threw a tantrum after bowling his first two overs. With the captain going for 16 in his second over, he went straight into the umpire’s face arguing over a marginal decision that happened six balls ago. Afridi was erroneous in his fielding placements, chasing the ball every time it got hit for a boundary.
Sultans batsmen - Rizwan and Shan Masood were having a good laugh in the middle over the situation and had scored 29 from the first three.
The comeback
With the captain just about going into meltdown, Lahore needed a senior pro to pool in all his experience and make something happen. And they did. The 41-year-young Mohammad Hafeez castled the Multan captain to bring the home side back into the game.
He saw Rizwan shuffling and trying to access the leg side and darted in a full delivery into the middle and leg stump. Rizwan, looking to sweep the ball, got beaten by the pace and departed at 14 off 12 via a needless dismissal.
The run-out
They say one brings two and it did indeed. It took exactly 6 balls of pressure and a young batter in the non-striker’s end to effect the next dismissal. Shan Masood’s strategy after Rizwan’s dismissal was to keep ticking off singles, till Multan could see off some tough overs before launching in an all out assault. In the final ball of the 5th over, Masood tapped a fuller length ball to cover with soft hands and stormed out for a single. A run at that short a distance needed utmost commitment and trust of the non-striker, something that the 23-year-old Aamer Amzat did not have on his senior partner.
Amzat hesitated before saying no, and chose not to move a single step off his crease. This ended up leaving Masood in the middle of the pitch, before Fakhar Zaman picked the ball, took his own sweet time, and then threw it straight into the stumps.
Masood departed on 19 off 15, hurling abuses at his partner as Multan went into a frenzy.
The collapse
Three more wickets came in the next six overs as Multan found it difficult to negotiate the likes of Zaman Khan and Hafeez. More 36/1 in 4 overs, Multan were reduced to 63/5 at 10.4 with established players like Rilee Rossouw going back to the hut without doing much damage.
Ex-Lahore Qalandar player Tim David tried his best to revive the situation, but the climbing run rate was too much for the Singaporean-Australian batter. With the required rate going close to 15 in the 13th over, David played some exquisite shots, before holing one out to Fakhar Zaman in the deep trying to hit Shaheen Afridi for a six.
Barring David, Khushdil Shah tried wrestling Zaman Khan who was exceptional on the day and only managed to score 32 off 23 before getting cleaned up by a quick and straight delivery from Haris Rauf.
The finish
By this time the mood of the game had changed and Lahore knew that there was no defeating them. Shaheen Afridi bagged two more wickets at the death alongside Haris Rauf and finished the Multan innings.
Another late revival in 1st innings
Earlier in the day, Lahore got the most ominous start possible, with Fakhar Zaman failing in the second straight playoffs game. The left hander, trying his off-spinner Asif Afridi for a six over mid wicket, ended up getting caught on a boundary line catch from Shahnawaz Dahani which stalled the Lahore momentum for the first few overs. Down by 25/3 in 4.2 overs, Mohammad Hafeez held the innings together, expertly pacing his innings throughout the game.
Hafeez had a blazing start to the innings hitting Rumman Raees for 3 fours in an over and then slowed down to see off the tough phase of the game. He targeted the Multan bowler in phases before entering the 14th over, where he started to take around 9-10 runs per over.
The injection of the fearless Harry Brook helped the momentum with the Englishman finding his range in the final. He remained not out at 41 off 22 while Hafeez departed after an exceptional 69 off 46 balls. After Hafeez’s departure, it was once again Namibian David Wiese who smashed 28 off 8 balls to take Lahore to a safe score.
Conclusion
We have said this once and we will say this again, Lahore Qalandars are a proper team that feed off the energy of each other on the pitch. On the days their superman Fakhar and Shaheen lost control, Mohammad Hafeez, Wiese and Zaman Khan shone through to win a high pressure game in front of their home crowd. And that showed in the post match presentation as well where Fakhar Zaman won the batter of the tournament and Zaman Khan was rewarded with the emerging player trophy.
Lahore’s first PSL win was as deserved as it gets and the premier T20 tournament in Pakistan would be glad that they were able to finish it without any interruptions. The 2022 PSL will go a long way to mend Pakistan’s relationships with other cricketing nations and give players confidence to return to a country that loves its cricket through and through.