Gladiators pull off a thriller
dubai — Thursday night was one of fireworks with defending Pakistan Super League (PSL) champions Islamabad United and the Peshawar Zalmis matching those fireworks that went up over the ‘Ring of Fire,’ with their own brand of batting pyrotechnics.
There were 365 runs scored with a whopping 31 boundaries and 17 sixes flying off the batsmen’s blades. The day after the heady night though, had seemed like an anti-climax, with the first of the double-headers late Friday afternoon between last year’s runners-up Quetta Gladiators and last year’s wooden-spoonists Lahore Qalandars being pretty much a low-scoring affair at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
There were only 19 boundaries and eight sixes in the 264, but there was no shortage of drama with the Quetta Gladiators nicking a thriller — an eight-run win over the Lahore Qalandars.
That hadn’t seemed the case when Quetta were inserted in by Lahore captain Brendon McCul- lum, making his debut in the PSL, with Sarfraz Ahmed’s men scratch- ing up a below par score.
But then, that 136 seemed more than enough with Quetta’s left-arm spinners Zulfiqar Babar, Moham- mad Nawaz and Hasan Khan, the 18-year-old rookie, playing his first ever T20, foxing Lahore.
“We got the victory but we aren’t too happy because the score was too low. The opposition were quite strong and when we took three or four wickets, we had a bit of hope that we could win this game. Credit goes to the whole team for fighting it out despite such a low total,” said Sarfraz Ahmed.
Earlier, it was a back-breaking and bat-breaking effort from Rilee Rossouw with the South African left to fire-fight the early damage after the Lahore Qalandars bowling attack of youngster Mohammad Irfan (Jr) and the old hats Sohail Tanvir and PSL debutant Sunil Narine had throttled Quetta.
The out of favour opener Ahmed Shehzad as well as T20 mercenary Kevin Pietersen failed to pinch their rivals with the latter inside edging Irfan for the stumps to light up.
The other opener Asad Shafiq, who played a defiant 29 from 28 balls with four boundaries, was perhaps a tad too early on his paddle sweep and was castled behind his legs by Narine.
Then, it was down to Quetta’s new men Rossouw and Thisara Perera to give some semblance to the total. Southpaw Rossouw, who had to change his bat after his Kookaburra had split into two, while facing Bilawal Bhatti, strode to 60 from 47 balls with three boundaries and a six.
At the other end, Perera made 12 from 11 with a lone boundary, but it was to be their damage control exercise, worth 45 runs for the seventh wicket, that breathed life into their innings. Hasan Khan’s cameo of 16 also helped nudge them to 136 for nine in their allotment.
Irfan snapped three for 26, while Narine picked two for 16. Tanvir had two for 24. Yasir Shah, playing his first PSL, after he missed out on last year as he was serving was three-month ban for a doping violation, took one for 32.