Defending champions Lahore Qalandars beat Multan Sultans by one run in the opening match of HBL PSL Season 8 in a thrilling encounter.
Chasing the target of 176 runs, Multan Sultans managed to score 174 runs for 6 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Thus, the match ended in the name of Lahore Qalandars by only 1 run.
On the first wicket of Multan Sultans, they established a partnership of 100 runs in 12.2 overs and made the match almost one-sided, but the bowlers of Lahore Qalandars did not lose courage.
Shan Masood returned to the pavilion after scoring 35 runs on a total of 100, Lahore Qalandars got a big wicket on the score of 131, Mohammad Rizwan left the field after scoring 75 runs off 50 balls.
On the first ball of the 19th over, David Miller scored 25 runs and was bowled by Haris Rauf, then the match started slipping from the hands of Multan Sultans.
Kieron Pollard was run out after scoring 20 runs. On the second ball of the last over. Then Lahore Qalandar’s hopes of victory brightened. On the very next ball, Usman Khan returned to the pavilion without scoring any runs.
Multan Sultans needed 10 off the last 2 balls to win, but Khushdil Shah managed to hit only boundaries on these two balls and the hosts lost by just 1 run.
Lahore Qalandars’ Shaheen Afridi, Hussain Talat, Zaman Khan and Haris Rauf dismissed one player each.
Lahore Qalandars Innings
Earlier, defending champions Lahore Qalandars had set a target of 176 runs to Multan Sultans. Lahore Qalandars scored 175 runs for 6 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Lahore Qalandars beat Multan Sultans by 1 runs.
The opening pair of Lahore Qalandars went into the first match. The opening batsmen in the form of Fakhar Zaman and Mirza Tahir Baig put up a partnership of 61 runs.
Tahir Baig returned to the pavilion after playing an innings of 32 runs off 26 balls. He hit 5 fours during this time, Akil Hussain showed him the way to the pavilion.
Fakhar Zaman hit 5 sixes and 3 fours during his innings of 66 runs. Osama Mir sent him to the pavilion.
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Shai Hope scored 19 runs and Talat Hussain scored 20 runs from Lahore Qalandars. The last batsman out was David Wassa who could score only 5 runs.
Sikandar Raza, the defending champion, played an unbeaten knock of 19 runs off 14 balls.
On behalf of Multan Sultans, Ehsanullah and Usama Mir got 2, 2 wickets while Shahnawaz Dhani and Aqeel Hussain took 1, 1 player of Lahore Qalandars.