PSL champions Lahore Qalandars. Photo: Taken from the official website of PSL
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PSL champions Lahore Qalandars. Photo: Taken from the official website of PSL
The Pakistan Super League (PSL), which spread heat throughout the season, came down with a thrilling final. Shaheen Afridi’s Lahore Qalandars recorded a second consecutive title with a thrilling win over Mohammad Rizwan’s Multan Sultans.
Shaheen Shah Afridi, captain of Lahore Qalandars, became Shahid Afridi in the final of PSL last Saturday (March 18) night. Who ran rampant with the bat and poured fire with the ball. Shaheen’s perfect all-round performance saw Lahore Qalandars win their second consecutive PSL title by beating Multan Sultans by 1 run.
In the mega final, Lahore put up a big collection of 200 runs on the scoreboard after batting at the beginning of 20 overs. For Lahore, the batsman Abdullah Shafiq played an excellent innings of 65 runs off 40 balls. Opener Mirza Baig scored 30 off 18 balls and Fakhar Zaman scored 39 off 34 balls. And in the end, Shaheen played a devastating innings of 44 runs off 15 balls and played an important role in building a big collection for the team.
Chasing a big target, Multan Sultans’ innings stopped at 199 runs after playing till the last ball of the innings. Proteas batter Riley Russo scored 52 off 32 balls. Besides Rizwan 34, Usman Khan 18, Pollard 19 and Tim David scored 20 runs.
Multan needed 41 runs to win in the last 3 overs. Had 6 wickets in hand. Captain Shaheen Shah Afridi came to bowl at such an important time. Afridi, who took just 1 wicket for 45 runs in the first three overs, took 3 wickets in the last over of his quota. And gave only 6 runs. Basically, Afridi’s great over turned the match for Lahore.
However, in the 19th over of the match, the two batsmen of Multan Sultans Khushdil Shah and Abbas Afridi scored 22 runs with two fours and two sixes in one over of Pakistan sensation Haris Rauf. After that, it seemed that Multan might finally win. But who knew that so much drama is waiting for the last over!
Multan needed 13 runs to win. However, Multan could score 9 runs in the first five balls in the over bowled by young bowler Zaman Khan. Last ball required equation stands at 4 runs. Abbas Afridi was run out while taking the third run despite being able to take doubles with the bat of Khushdil. As a result, the innings of Multan Sultans stopped at 199 runs. Lahore Qalandars won the title by 1 run in such a great final.
