Lahore Qalandars became the first team to win back-to-back titles after defeating Multan Sultans by 1 run in the final of the eighth edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL). In a repeat of last year’s final at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday, the Qalandars won the toss and elected to bat first.
The team also posted a solid first innings to support their captain’s decision as they posted 200/6 in their quota of 20 overs, with Abdullah Shafiq scoring 65 off 40 balls and skipper Shaheen Afridi also Scored a game-changing 15 runs. Ball 44. Later, Rilee Rossouw’s 52 off 32 balls and Mohammad Rizwan’s 34 off 23 set up an interesting chase, but Multan could not find the spark at the end of their innings that someone like Shaheen had provided to the home side.
The left-arm pacer picked up 4 wickets in his last 2 overs, getting rid of Tim David, Kieron Pollard, Anwar Ali and Usama Mir, who were at large in terms of the game, helping him finish with the best bowling figures helped to do. PSL Final (4/51). Rashid Khan also took 2 wickets for 26 runs, due to which the Qalandars created history.
In the end, it turned out to be an absolute thriller of a match. Despite Shaheen’s 18th over where he took 3 wickets and conceded just 6 runs, Multan Sultans found a way back in the match by adding 22 runs in the over bowled by Haris Rauf along with Khushdil Shah and Abbas Afridi.
With just 13 needed from 6 deliveries and an inexperienced Zaman Khan to bowl the final over, the match could have gone either way but Zaman held his nerve as Qalandars won by a narrow margin of just 1 run. He conceded just 1 boundary and a couple of extra runs on overthrows from close quarters to make things interesting, but in the end Shaheen became the first captain to lift back to back PSL trophies.
