Multan Sultans Vs Lahore Qalandars | Match 3 | PSL 7, | Multan Sultans 209 for 5 (Masood 83, Rizwan 69, Khushdil 18, Afridi 3-40) beat Lahore Qalandars 206 for 5 (Zaman 76, Ghulam 43) by five wickets |

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.

Rizwan, Masood, Khushdil seal Sultans’ record-breaking chase

| Sultans needed 16 off the last over, and Khushdil sealed the win with four consecutive boundaries |

The opening game of the doubleheader on Saturday. After defeating Lahore Qalandars in a highly dramatic chase of 206, Multan Sultans, the PSL 7 champions, now have two wins from two games.In his Lahore captaincy debut, Shaheen Shah Afridi almost got his team back in the penultimate over, but Khushdil Shah’s late flurry was enough to get Multan over the line. 

The early focus of this season has been on how to approach setting a competitive target when batting first, with Babar Azam coming under particular scrutiny in the opening game. This is due to the chase-heavy nature of the National Stadium in the Pakistan Super League—17 of the last 18 games in Karachi have now been won by the chasing side. Fakhar sets the tone. 

On the other hand, his Pakistan teammate Fakhar Zaman showed a lot of attacking intent from the first ball, and his success showed how batters should build their innings throughout the rest of the game and the true nature of today’s pitch. Fakhar scored 47 off 19 shots, his highest Powerplay score in the PSL, as he attacked 64 percent of deliveries within the Powerplay.Early on, he came down the field twice to dismiss David Willey and Imran Khan for boundaries, preventing the new ball bowlers from dropping their lengths even with little swing. 

This demonstrated the proactive nature of his batting.His attacking shot percentage didn’t go down after the Power Play either, rising to 68% as his assault continued. This is significant.However, Fakhar chose to lower his intent and take singles when leg spinner Imran Tahir came on to bowl, indicating that Lahore Qalandars would play the primary threat in the Multan bowling unit. 

This would continue throughout the Lahore Qalandars innings, with Tahir attacking only 48% of his deliveries. For the second time in his PSL career, the former South African international did not commit any false shots during his four-over spell.An excellent total of 206-5 was achieved thanks to Fakhar’s final score of 76 (25), as well as the death over contributions of David Wiese (13* off 5) and Rashid Khan (17* off 4). Given that all four other scores above 200 in Karachi in the PSL had been defended, it appeared to be the “winning score. 

A Tale of Two Death Overs Multan Sultans began their chase in the same manner as Fakhar, scoring 150 runs in a partnership between Mohammad Rizwan and Shan Masood.Again, Rashid Khan, the opposition’s primary spinner, showed signs of slowing down, scoring an astonishing 1-28 in four overs. However, Lahore’s skipper made the most significant contribution.Even though Multan Sultans defeated Rashid, they were still ahead of the game. Before Shaheen’s game-changing 19th over, they needed 17 runs from 12 innings.The left-arm quick made the decision to bowl full lengths aggressively, focusing on the stumps of Tim David and Sohaib Maqsood to test their speed. As would be expected, Sohaib Maqsood was particularly troubled. His strike rate of 98 against deliveries at or above 140 kph ranks second among Pakistan batters who have faced 60 or more of these deliveries.Shaheen not only dismissed David and Maqsood, but he also conceded just one run, leaving international teammate Haris Rauf with 16 runs in the last over to defend. As it were, Rauf had a comparable way to deal with Shaheen, endeavoring to go full however wide of the new player at the crease, left-hander Khushdil Shah. 

However, Rauf’s over ended two balls early, failed to even locate the blockhole, and incurred the costs of death bowling’s fine margins, making it nowhere near as successful. Some batters may have struggled against Rauf’s pace, but Khushdil, who is on the opposite end of the spectrum from teammate Maqsood and has an outstanding strike rate of 162 against bowling at 140 kph, was able to nail his yorkers. 

Multan prevailed today thanks to his four consecutive goals, but the Sultans may have been a little unlucky considering how they used their middle order; on another day, Lahore would have prevailed thanks to Shaheen’s skill. Rizwan, Masood, and Khushdil complete Sultans’ record-breaking chase. Sultans needed 16 runs in the final over, but Khushdil won with four boundaries in a row.

| Shan Masood and Mohammad Rizwan powered Multan Sultans’ chase | 

PSL Multan Sultans beat Lahore Qalandars by five wickets, scoring 209 for 5 (Masood 83, Rizwan 69, Khushdil 18, Afridi 3-40) in Karachi. Fifties from Mohammad Rizwan and Shan Masood, along with some late power-hitting from Khushdil Shah, helped Multan Sultans complete the highest successful chase in PSL history against Lahore Q Sultans made a quick start to their innings, scoring 150 in 15 overs off their openers Masood and Rizwan against a challenging target of 207. Masood was the more aggressive foil at first, scoring 50 balls with 14 fours and a six. Rizwan then picked up the pace, scoring 69, his second half-century in a row, with six fours and three sixes. 

In any case, Rashid Khan stopped that force as he struck to eliminate Masood in the fifteenth over, and David Wiese followed it up with a conservative six-run over.As a result, Sultans needed 45 runs in the final four overs.Qalandars appeared to have the upper hand when Shaheen Shah Afridi bowled Rizwan in the 17th over, but Sohaib Maqsood and Rilee Rossouw immediately clubbed the fast bowler for three boundaries. In the penultimate over, Afridi dealt Maqsood and Tim David two more decisive blows as the match was in a delicate state. With Khushdil on strike, Haris Rauf’s 16 runs in the final over brought the total down to 16.

In the history of the PSL, no chasing team had ever scored more than 16 runs in the final over before this match. That changed, though, when Khushdil won the five-wicket victory with four swings of his bat. He smashed Rauf for three fours in a row before scoring a six over cover to wrap things up. After their opener Fakhar Zaman scored a quick half-century, Qalandars were 206 for 5 earlier. He and Abdullah Shafique shared an opening stand that totaled 89 runs before he was run out in the 12th over for a 76 off 35 balls. Before Wiese and Rashid contributed with useful blows down the order to push the total past 200, Kamran Ghulam (43 off 31) maintained the score.

Mohammad Rizwan | Shan Masood | Khushdil Shah | Fakhar Zaman  Pakistan  | Qalandars vs Sultans | Pakistan Super League