Lahore Qalandars 199 for 6 (Fakhar 53, Haseebullah 40, Hassan 2-30) beat Hyderabad Kingsmen 130 (Labuschagne 26, Rauf 2-22, Ubaid 2-27, Raza 2-27) by 69 runs
After a pared down opening ceremony – in front of empty stands after the PSL decided against crowd involvement owing to a fuel conservation drive in the wake of the West Asia crisis – Shaheen Afridi opted to bat first. They quickly set about exposing Kingsmen’s modest bowling attack as Fakhar and Mohammad Naeem flew out of the blocks. The opening pair put on 84 in 50 balls before left-arm orthodox spinner Hassan Khan finally struck to draw first blood.
The Qalandars carried that momentum through. Afridi and Ubaid Shah accounted for Usman Khan and Saim Ayub inside the first four overs as the Qalandars threatened to cut the Kingsmen adrift inside the powerplay. They made good on that threat when Raza and Haris Rauf scythed through the middle order, with captain Labuschagne’s 26 the highest score of his side’s effort.
It wasn’t long before Kingsmen switched to making sure they reached three figures, and then put on as many runs as possible to avoid getting hammered on the net run-rate in the early stages of the tournament. But, as if to sum up the feebleness of the performance, they would finish with two run outs as Qalandars sealed a huge win to demonstrate why they have won three of the last four PSL tournaments, and why they may rank among the favourites to make it four in five.
