Monitoring Desk
KARACHI: Fifties from Mohammad Rizwan and Shan Masood, followed by some late power-hitting from Khushdil Shah, helped Multan Sultans pull off the highest successful chase in PSL history, against Lahore Qalandars in Karachi.
Faced with a steep target of 207, Sultans made a rapid start to their innings, with the openers Masood and Rizwan racing to 150 inside 15 overs.
Masood was initially the more aggressive foil, slamming 14 fours and a six for his 50-ball 83, before Rizwan also picked up the pace, scoring 69 – his second consecutive half-century – with six fours and three sixes.
However, Rashid Khan halted that momentum as he struck to remove Masood in the 15th over, and David Wiese followed it up with an economical six-run over.
That left Sultans needing 45 from the last four overs. When Shaheen Shah Afridi bowled Rizwan in the 17th over, Qalandars seemed to have wrested the advantage, but Sohaib Maqsood and Rilee Rossouw clubbed the fast bowler for three boundaries immediately.
With the match finely poised, Afridi struck two more decisive blows in the penultimate over, removing both Maqsood and Tim David. That brought the equation down to 16 runs needed off the last over, bowled by Haris Rauf with Khushdil on strike. Going into this game, no chasing team in PSL history had ever scored more than 16 runs off the final over.
Khushdil, however, changed that, as he sealed the five-wicket victory with four swings of his bat. He blasted Rauf for three consecutive fours, before finishing off with a six over cover.
Earlier, Qalandars had made 206 for 5, on the back of a rapid half-century from their opener Fakhar Zaman.
He shared an 89-run opening stand with Abdullah Shafique, before being dismissed for a 35-ball 76 in the 12th over. Kamran Ghulam (43 off 31) kept the score ticking, before Riese and Rashid chipped in with handy blows down the order to push the total past 200.
