Monday night at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, the Quetta Gladiators secured their second victory of the PSL 9 by defeating the home team, the Lahore Qalandars, by a five-wicket margin.
Quetta Gladiators won two games in a row in PSL 2024, courtesy of Khawaja Nafey’s unbeaten half-century and Akeal Hosein’s tight spell. The Lahore Qalandars, captained by Shaheen Shah Afridi, suffered their second straight defeat.
Pitch report and toss update
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. The Lahore Qalandars chose to bat first after winning the toss.
Quetta Gladiators’ bowlers didn’t gave away easy runs to the Lahore Qalandars
With the ball, Hosein had an incredible start that was causing Fakhar Zaman a lot of trouble. On the second ball of the first over, Mohammad Wasim Jr. dropped an easy catch as Fakhar Zaman chipped the ball to him in the covers. This gave Zaman an early escape. On the first ball of the third over, Fakhar gave a straight catch to Jason Roy at mid-on, ending his struggle.
Despite a controlled start by Quetta Gladiators’s bowlers, Sahibzada Farhan and Rassie Van der Dussen escalated the pace with a couple of boundaries in the powerplay. Lahore scored 43 runs with one wicket loss to end the powerplay.
Afterwards, Abrar returned with a ball that pitched on good length slightly outside off-stump and tricked the batter with a slight turn before smashing into the stumps, thereby turning the tide of the match in Quetta’s favor.
The dismissal came shortly after a half-century stand between Sahibzada Farhan and van der Dussen. After Abdullah Shafique joined Sahibzada in the middle, Lahore was up 67 to 2 at the halfway mark.
Jahandad Khan’s cameo at the end led the Qalandars to a competitive score
Farhan tried his luck as well, but this time Wasim Jr. was the victim of misfortune as Hasnain dropped the batter’s top edge at third man. Batting at 44, Farhan eventually fell off Hasnain, but not before smashing back-to-back sixes.
Hosein came back to bowl two more economical overs before ending his spell with figures of 2-17, and the Qalandars continued to lose wickets as they tried to accelerate. Jahandad Khan was the lone batter to find success in the last overs.
He scorched to an undefeated 17-ball 45, hitting three sixes and four boundaries while assisting the team in reaching 187 for 7. Hasnain and Hosein each took two wickets for Quetta Gladiators, while Wasim Jr., Abrar, and Amir each contributed one wicket.
Quetta Gladiators’ openers gave them a solid start
The Gladiators got off to a steady start, chasing a challenging target. But Haris Rauf, who was bowling the second over, misplayed his lines and delivered three wide deliveries, giving the visitors the advantage in their quest for runs. Using the other length faults as cover, Saud Shakeel and Jason Roy were able to establish easy boundaries and quickly build an edge during the powerplay.
In the third over, Shakeel even went after Shaheen Afridi, scooping him over fine leg for a six. On the fifth ball of the seventh over, Saud got bowled on a yorker from Zaman Khan, which gave Lahore their first wicket. The duo added 69 runs on 41 balls, 61 of which came in the powerplay. Sikandar Raza smashed Roy’s stumps three balls later as he left for 19-ball-24 with four boundaries.
Rilee Rossouw and Khawaja Nafay shared a 29-run third-wicket stand that lasted for 19 balls until Rossouw was removed by Haris Rauf in the 11th over.
Khawaja Nafay’s sensational innings got Quetta Gladiators over the line
Nafay unleashed two massive sixes against Haris Rauf on the first and fifth balls of the same over, giving Quetta’s innings a boost. The 22-year-old lived up to the buzz surrounding his arrival at the PSL while maintaining his composure in difficult conditions. Sarfaraz Ahmed was removed by leg-spinner Salman Fayyaz in the 14th over, leaving Quetta at 130-4 with 58 runs needed from 41 balls.
Before Shaheen Shah Afridi whacked him with a delivery in the 17th over, Sherfane Rutherford contributed with 14 off 12 balls. Nafay blasted Rauf over wide mid-off in the next over to reach his first PSL fifty off 29 balls.
With five balls remaining, Quetta Gladiators managed to chase the target of 188 runs, with the winning runs coming from Nafay, who remained unbeaten on 60 off 31 balls with three sixes and four boundaries.
