Lahore Qalandars finally broke losing curse

DUBAI: Shaheen Shah Afridi’s magical five-wicket haul finally broke Lahore Qalandars’ losing curse, giving the team its first win of the season after six straight losses to salvage some of its pride.

Shaheen claimed five wickets for just four runs, helping restrict Multan Sultans to 114 – which Lahore chased down with six wickets in hand and eight balls remaining.

2nd innings

Lahore had a brisk start in the chase. Anton Devcich looked on course for another fifty but he fell to Shoaib Malik for 22 off 9 runs.

Lahore lost Fakhar Zaman soon after, as he holed out to Pollard in the deep off Imran Tahir’s delivery at 16 off 11 balls.

Agha Salman, at one down, only managed 3 off 8 balls before falling to Mohammad Irfan, leaving Lahore at 41-3 (4.4 overs).

Skipper Brendon McCullum broke the pressure with his trademark aggression, taking Lahore closer to the target.

Gulraiz Sadaf tried to anchor the inning, taking 40 balls to score 27 when he was caught in the deep in the over of Saif Badar, who earlier dropped McCullum twice.

Sohail Akhtar (11*) and McCullum (35*) did the rest of the work from there, driving Lahore to a six-wicket victory over Multan.

1st innings

Multan were off to a breezy start after they won the toss and opted to bat against Lahore Qalandars in today’s first game in Dubai.

Kumar Sangakkara, who has been in red-hot form this season, showed no mercy to Lahore’s bowlers. He smashed a brisk 45 off 30 balls, before getting out on Narine’s delivery.

Sohaib Maqsood, the next man in, and Ahmed Shehzad kept the momentum going, before Shehzad was dismissed by McClenaghan for 32.

Narine then bowled Sohaib Maqsood at 16, slowing down Multan’s run rate.

But the real magic for Lahore happened when Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed Shoaib Malik, R Whiteley and Saif Badar, all in the same over, dealing a sharp blow to Multan’s quest for a big total.

With the middle and lower order exposed, Multan struggled to get runs, going several overs without any boundary.

Shaheen cleaned up the rest of the order, taking two more wickets to complete his five-wicket haul.