Multan Sultans, playing in front of the home crowd at the Multan Cricket Stadium, required 49 off the last five overs and with set batter Mohammad Rizwan and David Miller at the crease seemed on course to a comfortable win.
But, in an outstanding spell of death bowling, Shaheen Shah Afridi gave only 16 runs in two overs (16th and 18th) and bowled Rizwan with a slower one. Haris Rauf was equally brilliant, giving only four runs in the 17th and removing Miller with a pitch perfect yorker at the start of the 19th.
Experienced T20 batter Kieron Pollard, who Multan Sultans had picked in the replacement draft, smashed Haris for a six and a four towards the end of the penultimate over that added 14 runs for his side and left only 15 to be chased in the last over.
Shaheen trusted Zaman Khan, who had bowled incredibly well in the last season to defend 12 off the last over against Islamabad United, and the right-arm fast bowler delivered.
In what turned out to be dramatic last over, Pollard was run out, running for the second, on the second ball, the third ball, a full toss, thudded onto Usman Khan’s pad right in front of stumps, Usama Mir was run out on the fourth, Khushdil Shah spanked the second last ball for a four to bring down the equation to six off one but failed to connect the last ball that raced away for four instead.
This was Multan Sultans’ first defeat at home – they had won their all three matches here in 2020 – and that came from a side who were playing their first-ever match at this venue.
Multan Sultans had a solid start to the run chase of 176 with Shan Masood (35 off 31) and Rizwan, whose 75 off 50, comprising eight fours and a six, was the top score in the match, putting a 100-run partnership. Shan was caught off Hussain Talat on the 12.2 overs marks and that was the only wicket to fall before Rizwan’s dismissal.After Multan Sultans had accumulated 53 runs in the Powerplay, Lahore Qalandars did well to dry up the flow of boundaries as when Miller, who scored 24 off 20, struck David Wiese for four on the second ball of the 14th over; it ended a 28-ball-long boundary drought
Lahore Qalandars were given a solid start by the opening pair of Fakhar Zaman, who became the only second batter in the HBL PSL to cross the 2,000-run mark, and debutant Mirza Tahir Baig after Rizwan, the Multan Sultans captain, decided to field after winning the toss. The pair added 61 runs before Tahir fell to Akael Hosein after scoring 32 off 26.
It seemed like Fakhar, who scored the most runs in the HBL PSL 7, had picked up from where he left his form in the Lahore Qalandars colours as he continued to score at a brisk pace and brought up his 17th half century of the tournament in 32 balls. He added 58 runs with Shai Hope, who scored 19 off 17.
Player of the match Fakhar went on to hit five sixes and three fours in his 42-ball 66 before he became the second wicket to fall in tandem when he holed out to deep square leg off Usama Mir on the first ball of the 16th over. This was leg-spinner Usama’s second wicket after he had sent back Hope earlier in the innings. On the previous delivery, pacer Ihsanullah had dismissed Kamran Ghulam, who could make only three off six balls.
Hussain played a cameo in the lower middle-order, smashing 20 off 12 and Sikander Raza, Qalandars’ Zimbabwean import, made 19 not out off 14. Hussain was dismissed in the penultimate over by Ihsanullah.
Shahnawaz Dahani picked up his solitary wicket on the last ball of the innings when he struck David Wiese’s pad in front of stumps.
When Dubai and Abu Dhabi hosted the first edition of the six-team Pakistan Super League (PSL) cricket tournament in 2016, the country was a pariah in international cricket.
Barring Zimbabwe, no foreign team had visited the country since 2009, when the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked by armed men in Lahore
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was forced to make the United Arab Emirates (UAE) its home away from home. A generation of Pakistani players started and ended their careers without ever playing a single international game in front of a home crowd.
Moreover, longstanding tensions with neighbouring cricket powerhouse India meant Pakistani players were shunned from the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s biggest Twenty20 tournament, without any formal announcement of a ban on them.
The Pakistani cricket team’s on-field performance in white ball cricket also needed much to be desired.
Meanwhile, international cricket is slowly returning to Pakistan, with the country playing host to two of the “Big Three” – England and Australia – last year after last hosting them in 2005 and 1998, respectively. India remain the only big team who have not played against Pakistan in a bilateral series for a decade.
However, with seven wildly successful editions under its belt, the PSL could arguably lay claim as not only the second-best T20 cricket league in the world but also the tournament which helped revive Pakistan’s cricketing fortunes.
As the eighth edition of the PSL begins on Monday, featuring defending champions Lahore Qalandars and last year’s runners-up Multan Sultans, it will be the first time the tournament, featuring 34 matches, will take place at four different venues in the country.
Pakistan was the dominant team in the 2021 T20 World Cup, where they won all five matches in the group stages before they were stunned by Australia in the semifinal. The following year, they made it to the final but were defeated by England.
Hassan Cheema, strategy manager for two-time PSL victors Islamabad United, told Al Jazeera the national team’s performance in the last two T20 World Cups is a testament to the PSL’s impact on the sport.
“Pakistan has a plethora of talent that allows it to compete with the best even with the structural disadvantages. The PSL allows some of that gap to be filled, enough for Pakistan to be competitive at the highest levels,” Cheema said.
The first two PSL editions featured five teams. Since 2018, it has been a six-team event, including Karachi Kings, Islamabad United, Peshawar Zalmi, Multan Sultans, Quetta Gladiators, and Lahore Qalandars. Lahore beat Multan to win the title last year.
Islamabad United are the only team to win the tournament twice (2016 and 2018), while Peshawar Zalmi have made it to the playoffs in every edition of the PSL. All six teams have managed to win the trophy at least once.
Quetta Gladiators, one of the most consistent teams in the first four editions of the tournament, have not made it to the playoffs since 2020.
Last year, Karachi Kings, the 2020 champions, ended up with the worst record in the tournament history’s, winning just one of the 10 matches.
With Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan set to host the games, this year’s tournament will be the first time that four of the six teams would boast support from a home crowd.
The tournament will be played over two legs, with the first 14 matches played in Multan and Karachi. The teams will then move to Lahore and Rawalpindi to play the rest of the games, with the final to be played on March 19 at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium.
At least 36 players from 10 different nations were picked up by the six PSL teams in December last year. Ten players from England series are playing, including 2022 T20 World Cup winners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali.
Star Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade is making his PSL debut with the Karachi Kings.
Over the years, the PSL saw the emergence of several players who later made it to the national squad, including current captain and the world’s second-best T20 batsman Babar Azam. All-rounder Shadab Khan and bowlers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf first made their mark in the PSL.
“More than any trophies that we have won, what makes us most proud is how many guys have graduated from Islamabad to the national team,” Cheema, the Islamabad United official, told
