The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
ZIMBABWE all-rounder Sikandar Raza starred with the bat to help Pakistan Super League franchise Lahore Qalanders to a hard-fought 17-run victory over Quetta Gladiators at Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday night.
After losing the toss and put into bat, Lahore Qalanders soon found themselves in trouble, as they lost their first seven wickets for a paltry 50 inside the opening 10 overs.
In stepped the 36-year-old Zimbabwean talisman, who smashed an unbeaten 71 runs off 34 balls that helped Qalanders to put on 148 runs.
Raza’s innings featured eight boundaries and three sixes, in addition to two key partnerships that brought some marginal respectability to the defending champions’ total.
The first was a 69-run eighth-wicket partnership between Raza and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, while the other was a 10th wicket stand alongside Zaman Khan.
The latter last-wicket stand saw the two put 23 runs on the board off 16 balls, before the Khan was run out by the duo of Mohammad Nawaz and Umaid Asif to end Lahore Qalanders’ innings in the 19th over.
Nawaz and Naveen-ul-Haq were the pick of the Gladiators’ bowlers as they each took two wickets for 19 and 36 runs, respectively.
Surprisingly, Lahore Qalanders were able to defend their total, as Haris Rauf’s three for 22 runs and Khan’s two for 14 curtailed the Gladiators’ chase.
Raza, for his unbeaten 71 off 34 balls, was named Player of the Match, as the defending champions also laid claim to the record of the joint-lowest total successfully defended in a Pakistan Super League (PSL) match.
Lahore Qalanders look poised to defend their title, as they top the PSL log standings with 10 points from six matches.
They will be in action again on Saturday when they play Multan Sultans.
