On Tuesday night at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, the Multan Sultans displayed a clinical display with the bat and ball as they easily defeated the home team, the Lahore Qalandars, by 60 runs.
Multan Sultans won their fifth encounter primarily due to Usman Khan’s excellent batting effort as player of the match and Usama Mir’s brilliance, who rewrote history with his six-wicket haul. In the PSL 9, the Qalandars have now lost six straight games.
Toss update and pitch report
However, Gaddafi Stadium is a batter’s paradise. There is not much assistance for the bowlers on this type of surface. But as the game goes on, the surface does help the spinners a little bit, but the pacers have to work their way out in Lahore. So Multan Sultans won the toss and elected to bat first.
Hendricks and Usman held the innings of the Multan Sultans after an early wicket
In the first over, Shaheen Shah Afridi removed Mohammad Rizwan for a five-ball duck with a beautiful delivery that came back and crashed into stumps as the batsman tried to drive.
Usman Khan, in his second PSL 9 match, partnered with Hendricks at the crease, and the two quickly began scoring runs. Multan Sultans scored 53 runs for the loss of one wicket by the end of the powerplay.
Hendricks and Usman put on 70 runs in 46 balls during their second-wicket partnership, until Hendricks was removed by Sikandar Raza after Sahibzada Farhan made a brilliant catch behind the wickets.
Usman maintained the run flow despite the wicket falling, and the Multan Sultans amassed 94-2 at the halfway mark with 14 runs off the 10th over. He hit his second PSL 50 off of 31 balls in the next over.
Usman and Iftikhar’s fireworks pushed the Multan Sultans to a massive total
After putting together a 77-run partnership with Usman for the third wicket, Tayyab Tahir raced to a 14-ball 21 before losing his wicket to Brathwaite on the final ball of the 15th over.
In the 18th over, Iftikhar Ahmed entered the game with all guns blazing, and his assault against Shaheen produced 21 runs through two sixes and one four.
With Iftikhar hitting a massive six over deep midwicket against Jahandad on the fourth delivery of the last over, the Sultans broke the 200-run barrier in style. Usman fell for 55 balls and 96 runs in the final over, missing his second PSL century by Shaheen.
Multan Sultans concluded with a formidable score of 214-4 in the allowed 20 overs courtesy of Iftikhar’s brilliant performance at the bat, which yielded an undefeated 40 off 18 balls. While Raza and Brathwaite each returned with one wicket, Shaheen took two wickets.
Lahore Qalandars lost wickets at intervals after getting an steady start from their openers
Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman, the opening batsmen for Lahore Qalandars, scored 50 runs in five overs before pacer Aftab Ibrahim stuck Fakhar’s stumps. Sahibzada went out for 31 off 21 balls in the next over, because of Khushdil Shah.
On his PSL debut, wrist-spinner Faisal Akram was brought into the attack and quickly knocked out Kamran Ghulam on the 5th delivery of the tenth over, taking his first wicket.
After that, Sikandar Raza attacked Usama’s opening over, hitting two straight sixes and scoring 16 runs. Reeza Hendricks caught the ball at deep midwicket, ending Sikandar’s cameo, as Faisal came back to bowl.
As Shaheen entered to bat at six, he smashed his third ball for a maximum. However, two balls later, he was stumped for just nine off five balls, leaving the scoreboard at 120-5.
Lahore Qalandars lower order collapsed against Usama Mir’s sensational bowling
Lahore Qalandars suffered a meager 34 runs for their final five wickets lost as Usama wrecked havoc with the ball. Rassie van der Dussen holed out to Rizwan at deep midwicket, where the Multan Sultans captain made an incredible catch, starting the collapse.
George Linde was removed by Usama after he had come back for five runs off seven balls, and Jahandad Khan was given a golden duck, giving Usama a chance to go for a hat-trick.
After Carlos Brathwaite took 13 off the 16th over in an attempt to save Lahore, Usama came back to dismiss Salman, recording his first-ever five-wicket performance in T20 cricket. Usama ended the Qalandars innings three balls later by dismissing Zaman Khan for a single run, leaving Brathwaite on an undefeated 14.
Usama had the greatest bowling results for a spinner in PSL history with his six for 40. In addition, he made history as the only spinner to ever take six wickets in a single innings in the competition. Aftab and Khushdil each took one wicket, while Faisal reacted with two.
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