Qalandars’ all-round force mauls Gladiators to climb up the table
Fakhar Zaman plays a shot during his 22 (Source: PCB)
Nearly every single Lahore Qalandars player raised his hand up to consign a 63-run trouncing to Quetta Gladiators. The comprehensive T20 exhibition displayed by Shaheen Afridi and co. in a one-sided Karachi evening also granted them steps to climb up the PSL 2023 points table.
Top-order collectively fires after getting invited to bat first
Lahore Qalandars openers Mirza Baig and Fakhar Zaman provided a fiery start in the powerplay, as the duo put up 49 runs inside four-and-a-half overs. The two cricketers listed sparkling cameos at the top, which was backed by Kamran Ghulam with his 21 and Shai Hope with a 47-run scorching in the middle overs.
Hussain Talat, Sikandar Raza and Rashid Khan did the bulk of scoring at the death, while each of the six Gladiators bowlers used went for more than eight-an-over in the innings.
Afridi, Wiese’s three-fers negate Roy’s 48 to script big win
Qalandars’ South African import David Wiese was the only batter in their innings to be dismissed without a notable contribution. However, the all-round talisman more than made up for his batting shortcoming by tearing up the Gladiators top-order.
The cricketer bowled out his four overs and snared three wickets, including that of opener Martin Guptill and senior middle-order batters Mohammad Hafeez and Iftikhar Ahmed. Captain Shaheen Afridi also collected three wickets, albeit two of them in the death overs.
Raza backed up his batting cameo by removing Mohammad Nawaz in the run-chase while Rashid Khan bowled like his usual self, conceding just 17 runs and a wicket off his spell.
Jason Roy staged the lone rebellion for the Gladiators as they fell 63 runs short of their task, and they now sink to the bottom of the PSL 2023 standings.
Brief scores:
Lahore Qalandars: 198-6 (20)
Shai Hope 47 (32), Sikandar Raza 32* (16)
Qais Ahmad 2-36, Odean Smith 2-41
Quetta Gladiators: 135-8 (20)
Jason Roy 48 (30), Mohammad Hafeez 25 (22)
Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-22, David Wiese 3-23
Lahore Qalandars won by 63 runs
 "Aakash Saini")
