This season, Lahore Qalandars and Multan Sultans will square off once more. While they stumbled during the chase and made several dreadful mistakes in the middle, Qalandars maintained faith in their batters to cross the finish line. They maintained their composure and with six balls left, they chased down 172.
Qalandars to third PSL final
Peshawar Zalmi scored 171/5 in their opening at-bat. Saim Ayub was removed on nine after receiving a peach of a delivery from Zaman Khan that pinged his top of off. But, Babar Azam and Mohammad Haris went on to build an amazing combination, with the former adding 42 and the latter hitting 85. Tom Kohler-Cadmore performed poorly for the second time in a row and left without bothering the scorers.
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Bhanuka Rajapaksa continued to be undefeated at this point with 25, but he struggled to score against the Qalandars, who struck the exact line and hard lengths and made crossing the boundary difficult. Saim Ayub and Aamer Jamal were among the coveted victims picked off by Zaman Khan, who also recorded figures of 2/20. Haris Rauf remained without a wicket but was thrifty as he only allowed 31 runs.
In his three overs, David Wiese gave up 22 runs. When the Qalandars began their pursuit, you could feel some tension. Despite being engaged in a run-out and failing to answer a call from Abdullah Shafique for a little period of time, Tahir Baig scored a patient fifty runs. Despite this, he maintained his composure under pressure.
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Once again, Fakhar Zaman was dismissed early, and Ahsan Raza’s brief cameo of 15 runs didn’t really help. However, the most important stand of the game came from Sam Billings and Sikandar Raza, who made it easier for the home team to advance to the final. David Wiese and Shaheen Afridi then put the finishing touches on the victory. Afridi hit Salman Irshad with the game-winning shot, appropriately.
The PSL final will feature Multan and Qalandars for the second time in a row. Qalandars has advanced to the final three times in the past four years. Despite Rashid Khan’s poor performance today, the whole Qalandars squad was committed to defeating Zalmi, and little contributions from each player helped them to fend off the Babar-Azam-led side.
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