KARACHI: Lahore Qalandars opener Fakhar Zaman single-handedly led his side to a crucial six-wicket win over Karachi Kings when he scored a century in the second round of HBL PSL 2022 at the National Stadium on Sunday. With this defeat, the Kings have lost three straight matches in the league.
Fakhar smashed 12 fours and four sixes in his 60-ball 106 as Lahore chased down the target of 171 for the loss of four wickets with four balls to spare. It was also Fakhar's first century in his PSL career and his second in T20 career, with his previous best of 100 not out. This is also the first century of this event. Fakhar, who also hit a solid half-century in the previous game, scored a 33-ball fifty and his century came off 56 balls.
Fakhar shared a 74-run partnership with Samit Patel for the fourth wicket. Lahore needed six runs in the last over from Lewis Gregory. England all-rounder Samit Patel bowled a wide and hit Gregory for two consecutive fours to give a resounding victory. Samit remained unbeaten on 26 off 18 balls with the help of four fours. After a quick start, Lahore lost Abdullah Shafiq, who was in the hands of Aamer Yameen, off spinner Mohammad Nabi. He scored eight runs in a ball which included a four.
Lanky pacer Umaid Asif dismisses Kamran Ghulam (6), leaping into the air, Mohammad Nabi takes a brilliant catch at mid-on. And Lahore were 48-2 in the sixth over.
Fakhar and Hafeez then tried to build the momentum and shared 42 valuable runs for the third wicket, but were later caught by Babar at wide long off by Imad Wasim. Hafeez scored 24 runs in 21 balls and hit four fours. And then a super fourth-wicket stand between Fakhar and Samit worked for Lahore. However, Fakhar fell when Qalandars needed seven runs to win as he was caught by Imad Wasim off Umaid Asif.
Umaid Asif was the bowlers' choice with 2-30 in his quota of four overs. Mohammad Nabi and Imad Wasim took a wicket each. Fakhar was declared man of the match.
Invited to bat first, Sharjeel Khan set up a perfect pace with a 39-ball Super 60, which included eight fours and three big sixes, two of which came off David Wiese and spinner Samit Patel. He also hit a brilliant six in the stands. With a good track record against left-handed batsmen, Mohammad Hafeez eventually provided Lahore a breakthrough when he bowled Sharjeel off the first ball of his spell. It pitched on middle and foot, turned around a bit before hitting the left arm off-stump.
Falling in the 11th over, Sharjeel added 84 runs in 61 balls for the opening stand with skipper Babar Azam. Sharjeel completed his fifty in 33 balls.
Mohammad Nabi was promoted after Sharjeel's fall, but he failed to play a major innings which fell victim to Mirpur-born right-handed batsman Zaman Khan, who was kept at long-off by Shaheen Afridi. Nabi hit two fours in 15 balls of his 14 balls. Soon after, Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan clean bowled Babar Azam for 41 runs. Babar goes for an onside drive, misses it completely. The captain hit five fours in 33 balls. And the Kings were 122-3 in the 15th over at that time.
Since then, the Kings kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and saw no major partnership till they reached 170-7 in the allotted 20 overs. England wicket-keeper batsman Joe Clarke remained unbeaten on 24 off 18 balls with the help of two fours to help the Kings post 170-7. Kings scored 48 runs in the powerplay. His 100 came in 12.2 overs while 150 in 18.2 overs.
Fast bowler Haris Rauf, who took two wickets in the last over, scored 3-33 runs in his quota of four overs. Rashid (1–24 out of four), Shaheen (1–31 out of four), Zaman (1–39 out of four) and Hafeez (1–4) were other successful bowlers.
Earlier, Karachi Kings made two changes to their line-up which lost to Quetta Gladiators on Saturday, bringing in Sahibzada Farhan and Umaid Asif in place of Tom Lamonby and Mohammad Imran. Lahore Qalandars remained unchanged. Richard Illingworth and Michael Gough supervised the match. Ranjan Madugalle served as the referee.