LAHORE’s late winning streak continues
Lahore continued with its winning streak, beating Quetta with 17 runs. Lahore’s aggressive approach was quite vivid and their batting line up completely toppled the Gladiators. Lahore’s winning combination has been intact and it’s working for them. The opening partnership took an energetic start with smashing the ball across the boundary. Qalandars were above 50 in the power play as Devcich got off to a rocketing start. Unfortunately he couldn’t continue, but Fakhar on the other hand took a firm start, he scored a 50 in 36 balls. After his 50 he powered up, his strike rate went up above 300 and ended up with 94 of 50 deliveries, highest score of this season.
Fakhar unfortunately wasn’t able to complete his century but the 68 run partnership he built with Gulraiz Sadaf was disconcerting for Gladiators. Sadaf’s unbeaten 42 runs performance was sheer class, he struck the ball hard, properly timed and cleanly swept them for bounadries. It was an amazing package to watch. Even after the dismissal of Fakhar, Sadaf and Sunil continued to excel and took the score to 186 in 20 overs.
In response, Gladiators blasted off from the very first over. The Ashes (Jason Roy and Shane Waston) opponents gave Gladiators an energetic start with 52 runs of the initial 5 overs. However, after the dismissal of Watson the chase started to crumble. The Qalandari spinning combination was all set to bamboozle the gladiators, the wobbling head of Yasir Shah after every wicket showed his aggressive intent. On the other hand KP smashed Narine for a 6 and on the very next delivery Narine chopped his stumps, both the spinners’ got 2 wickets each.
The humongous target set by Qalandars made the chase difficult for Gladiators. The best part of the match was the youngsters like Shaheen Afridi and Hassan got wickets of Watson and McCullum respectively. That is a great prospect for Pakistan as the youngster are excelling and showing their potential. Similarly Gulraiz’s resilient batting can also be a great asset for Pakistan as he is a complete package, performing from top to bottom. With the end of PSL, there are some great prospects that delight the Pakistanis and it can be hoped they can be transformed in valuable resources for national side.
