Cricket Highlights, 16 Mar: PSL 2023 (Qualifier) – Lahore Qalandars vs Multan Sultans

Lahore Qalandars vs Multan Sultans (Qualifier) – Highlights

All-rounder Kieron Pollard’s brilliant performance helped Multan Sultans to get a massive 84-run win over Lahore Qalandars in the PSL 2023 qualifier at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Along with that, they’ve confirmed the final as the first team of the tournament.

Multan Sultans captain Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and elected to bat first, which propelled Lahore Qalandars to bowl. Multan Sultans collected a fighting total of 160 runs after losing 5 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs. In reply, Lahore Qalandars was bowled out scoring just 76 runs in 14.3 overs.

The two openers of Multan Sultans, Usman Khan, and Rizwan started well for the team after coming down to bat. In 6 overs of power play, these two together collected 46 runs. But in the 8th over, Usman (29 from 28 balls) returned to the dressing room for the team’s 53 runs.

Then Rilee Rossouw entered the field to bat at one-down. However, he did not perform well in this match. Caribbean all-rounder Kieron Pollard came to the wicket after Rossouw departed after scoring only 13 runs off 12 balls. But leader Rizwan could not accompany him for long. He got out scoring 33 runs off 29 balls.

When Rizwan got out, the team’s score was 90 for the loss of 3 wickets after 13 overs. From there, Pollard and Tim David continued to lead the team toward setting a strong target for the opponents. Multan Sultans were able to score 70 runs in the last 7 overs thanks to the stormy batting of these two.

Pollard and David put up a working partnership of 65 runs off 38 balls for the 4th wicket. Pollard returned to the pavilion after playing a devastating innings of 57 runs off 34 balls, with 1 four and 6 sixes. On the other hand, David remained unbeaten with 22 runs off 15 balls. Where there were equal numbers of fours and sixes each.

Haris Rauf took the highest number of 3 wickets for Lahore Qalandars with 34 runs in 4 overs. Besides, Rashid Khan and Zaman Khan took 1 wicket each.

Chasing a challenging target of 161 runs, the Lahore Qalandars batsmen were initially disoriented by the collected bowling efforts of the Multan Sultans bowlers. They lost three wickets after scoring 19 runs in 4 overs. Pacer Sheldon Cottrell gave the team the first breakthrough by sending off opener Mirza Tahir Baig (8) in the 2nd ball of the 3rd over of the innings.

Cottrell sent the new batsman Abdullah Shafique to the pavilion on the 4th ball. Cottrell took two wickets in the space of three balls and put Lahore Qalandars in danger. Then Fakhar Zaman (6) made his way back in the 4th over and captain Shaheen Afridi (0) got out in the fifth over, the score of the team stood at 4/28 at the end of 5 overs as a result of that.

The batters of Lahore Qalandars could not overcome that pressure. They continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. As a result, no other batsman could score three-digit scores for the team except Sam Billings (19), David Wiese (12), and Haris Rauf (15).

In the end, Lahore Qalandars’ innings ended after scoring 76 runs in 14.3 overs. All bowlers have scalped wickets for Multan Sultans. Sheldon Cottrell snapped up the highest number of 3 wickets. Besides, Usama Mir took 2 wickets and Abbas Afridi, Kieron Pollard, Ihsanullah, and Anwar Ali took 1 wicket each.

However, even though Lahore Qalandars lost this match, the hopes of the finals are still not over. They will face the winner of Eliminator 1 in Eliminator 2 on March 17. Where the winning team will face Multan Sultans in the final match on March 19 to compete for the title.

Lahore Qalandars vs Multan Sultans Scoreboard

Multan Sultans – 160/5 (20.0)

Lahore Qalandars – 76/10 (14.3)

Result – Multan Sultans won by 84 runs

Player of the match – Kieron Pollard

Multan Sultans

Lahore Qalandars vs Multan Sultans Playing XIs