Cricket Highlights, 18 March: PSL 2023 (Final) – Multan Sultans vs Lahore Qalandars

Multan Sultans vs Lahore Qalandars (Final) – Highlights

The Pakistan Premier League’s current season has been quite exciting. There was a run-flooded record and the record was diminished by other teams.   What else is acceptable if the final of such a packed event is not thrilling? That did take place. In an exciting championship match, Lahore Qalandars defeated Multan Sultans to claim victory.

Lahore Qalandars defeated Multan Sultans by one run in the PSL final of this season at the venerable Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday to win the championship for the second consecutive time (March 18). By batting first, Lahore accumulated 200 runs in the allowed 20 overs. Multan responded by declaring at 199 runs after conceding 8 wickets in the allotted over. They lost the championship by just one run for the second time in a row.

Multan had the opportunity to avenge its 42-run defeat against Lahore in the season’s grand finale. In this final, Lahore and Multan will play with each other for the last time. Shaheen Afridi, the captain of Lahore, chose to bat first after winning the toss. 

Fakhar Zaman’s sluggish batting did not significantly slow down Lahore’s run rate despite Mirza Tahir’s rough start. Lahore scored 38 runs in five overs while losing one wicket. Tahir Baig left the game after hitting 18 balls for 30 runs. He also hit 5 fours and 1 six.

For the second wicket, Fakhar and Abdullah Shafiq contributed 57 runs in 6.2 overs. With the side achieving 96 runs, Fakhar left the game having scored 39 runs off of 34 balls. Sam Billings struggled that day with the bat. After scoring 9 runs in 8 balls, this Englishman left. Lahore had scored 111 runs in 13.4 overs at that point. 

Without adding any more runs to this run, Lahore lost two more wickets. Usama Mir sent back Billings and Ahsan Bhatti in a back-to-back spell. After that, Khushdil Shah struck out Sikandar Raja, who only managed to score one run.

Lahore, however, went forward after this. Shaheen Afridi, the Captain, sparked a commotion with the bat alongside Abdullah Shafiq. Lahore had reached 178 after 18.4 overs when Shafiq left the field after hitting 65 off Anwar Ali. He hit eight fours and two sixes throughout the inning. 

22 runs were scored by Shaheen and David Wiese off the final 8 balls of Lahore’s inning. Shaheen alone made 20 runs off just 6 balls. With two fours and five sixes, the Lahore captain hit 44 runs off only 15 balls. 

Usman Khan and Mohammed Rizwan gave Multan a strong start by scoring 41 runs in just 3.3 overs while chasing a large target. Usman left the game after hitting 12 balls for 18 runs off Wiese’s ball. With the help of Rizwan-Russo’s bat, Multan was pursuing Lahore’s target after Usman left. 

The squad had 105 runs on the board when Russo left after 10.3 overs. Russo scored 52 runs in 32 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes before falling to Rashid Khan. Rashid also made Rizwan caught out after one over. He used 23 balls to score 34 runs.

Shaheen Shah, who was originally outplayed with the ball, went on to take four wickets in two straight overs. In his final over, Shaheen, who had lost the previous spell, got rid of Tim David, Anwar Ali, and Usama Mir for 6 runs. Kieran Pollard was also ejected during the preceding over by him. In this spell, Shaheen eliminated Multan from the contest. The goal for Multan’s victory in the final two overs was 35 runs.

However, with 22 runs in Haris Rauf’s 19th over, Khushdil Shah and Abbas Afridi made the match exciting. Multan needed 13 runs in the final over to win. Unfortunately, Zaman Khan’s over only allowed Multan’s batsmen to score 11 runs or less. Khushdil Shah was run out in the final over after making 25 runs off 12 balls. Abbas has scored 17 runs off 6 balls and was undefeated. 

With 51 runs in 4 overs, Shaheen Afridi claimed 4 wickets. With only 26 runs in the same number of overs, Rashid Khan claimed 2 wickets. 1 wicket for 31 runs was taken by David Wiese.

Multan Sultans vs Lahore Qalandars Scoreboard 

Lahore Qalandars – 200/6 (20.0)

Multan Sultans – 199/8 (20.0)   

Result – Lahore Qalandars won by 1 run   

Player of the match – Shaheen Afridi  

Player of the series – Ihsanullah

Ihsanullah

Multan Sultans vs Lahore Qalandars Playing XIs