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Shaheen Afridi’s fierce pace and David Wiese’s late charge drove Lahore Qalandars to a 6-wicket victory over defending champion Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League on Sunday.
Shaheen Afridi returned figures of 3-27, with his bowling reaching speeds of 94mph (around 150 kph). That helped limit Karachi to 186/9, despite half-centuries by Sharjeel Khan (64) and Muhammad Nabi (57).
Wiese’s blistering unbeaten 31 from 9 balls carried Lahore to 189/4 in 19.2 overs in response as the big South African hit two consecutive sixes against Australian fast bowler Daniel Christian to finish the game.
Karachi had victory in mind when Lahore needed 30 of the last 2 overs. But Amir’s 19th over went for 20 runs, with Wiese getting two lucky edges to the boundary behind the keeper and then lofting the fast bowler over long-off for a six.
“Sometimes you hit it right at the fielder, so those little notches count. We have seen that it is difficult to defend here with one short boundary.”
“To be honest, I’ve always felt like we were in that situation with a scream,” Wiese said.
Opener Fakhar Zaman scored a brilliant 83 off 54 balls, and Ben Dunk remained unbeaten on 57 after Lahore blundered to 0-2 in the 1st over they also lost key batsman Mohammad Hafeez for 15 inside 6 overs.
Fakhar and Dunk scored a 119-run partnership before Zaman holds out into the deep fielder in the 18th over. But Wiese’s late strike brought the team home.
Shaheen could have picked more wickets, but Lahore captain Sohail Akhtar, who won the toss and didn’t hesitate to field, dropped a sitter from Sharjeel Khan in the 1st over.
Babar Azam (5) was clean bowled by Shaheen in his 2nd over, but only after Zaman failed to maintain a sharp chance offered by Pakistan’s leading batsman, who went on to cut Shaheen’s short delivery.
Shaheen backed Karachi’s hopes of getting closer to 200 runs when he cleaned up Waqas Maqsood and Amir from perfect yorkers in the last over.
“They shouldn’t have chased it, but the credit goes to Fakhar and David Wiese how they played,” said Karachi captain Imad Wasim, who surprisingly did not bowl.
“In the end, we should have scored 40 or 50 in the last 4 overs, but we couldn’t because of some bad shots and runouts.”
Previously: Babar Azam’s half-century leads Karachi King to victory over Multan Sultans by 7 wickets.
It was the 11th consecutive successful win in this season’s PSL without a team that had yet to defend the total after being made to bat by the opposition.
The win pushed Lahore to the top of the points table alongside Peshawar Zalmi, with both teams on 6 points after 4 games, Karachi has 4 points.
