PSL Eliminator 2 | Abdullah Shafique fightback helps Lahore post defendable total

Lahore Qalandars were off to one of their worst starts of the season after being two down for just seven runs in the first three overs. Islamabad United’s Liam Dawson ruined Lahore’s party running riot through the top order dismissing the ever-dependable Fakhar Zaman for just one run. The English off spinner used the skidding new ball to beat Zaman for pace on the cut and then later brought one into Philip Salt castling his stumps.

Dawson’s tight lines were complimented by pacer Athar Mahmood’s hard lengths in the powerplay and the duo managed to keep Lahore at check for the larger part of the first six overs. The team would have hoped to capitalise on the same, but the introduction of Abdullah Shafique seemed to be like a breath of fresh air as the right hander counterattacked his way through trouble. 

A rapid half century in just 25 balls meant that Lahore were back on their feet and were able to score 82 in the first 10 overs, a big improvement from 9/2 at three.

Just as Lahore would have hoped to ramp off that fightback, two back to back wickets of Shafique and young Harry Brooks put them under the spot. If it were not for the poor fielding efforts of Islamabad United, Lahore would have been put under the spot much earlier than they actually were.

A struggling innings from Samit Patel (21 off 18) and Mohammad Hafeez (28 off 28) ended up further denting but a late onslaught from David Weise made sure that the home team were still afloat in their aspirations to enter the final game.

He accumulated 27 runs off Waqas Maqsood’s final over single handedly to shift the momentum of the game.

For Islamabad, Dawson was the cream of the crop, picking two wickets for 24 while Mohammad Wasim Jr picked 2 from his three overs bowled.