RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) — Two-time defending champion Lahore Qalandars finally recorded their first win this season the Pakistan Super League as they beat Islamabad United by 17 runs on Wednesday.
Earlier, fast bowler Hasan Ali grabbed 4-15 as Karachi Kings kept alive their hopes of a playoff spot with a thumping seven-wicket win over Quetta Gladiators.
Lahore had lost six straight games before getting one point from a rain-abandoned match against Peshawar Zalmi last Saturday.
Data-driven Islamabad, which prefers to chase, was bowled out for 145 with fast bowler Zaman Khan claiming 4-37 and Lahore fielders making some smart catches in the outfield.
Rassie van der Dussen (64) had earlier anchored Lahore to 162-7 with his fourth score of 50-plus this season before he was due to return back home and will miss Lahore’s last two league games.
Jahandad Khan made a spectacular one-handed running catch at mid-off to dismiss Alex Hales for zero in the first over of Shaheen Shah Afridi (2-32) and the batting power-house of Islamabad collapsed to 73-7 against pace midway through their run-chase.
Faheem Ashraf hit an unbeaten 41 while Azam Khan (29) and Naseem Shah (27) also played little cameos to narrow down the defeat before Zaman wrapped up the game and had No. 11 Rumman Raees trapped leg before wicket with a yorker in the penultimate over.
David Wiese, who sustained a groin injury in the first game, returned to the Lahore fold and upped the ante in the death overs with a brisk unbeaten 24 off 11 balls as skipper Shadab Khan used seven bowlers and only off-spinner Salman Ali Agha was not among the wickets.
Islamabad has seven points from eight games while Lahore have three with two games in hand.
KARACHI ROUTS QUETTA
Karachi fast bowler Hasan intelligently varied his pace to bowl out Quetta for this season’s lowest total of 118 in 19.1 overs after captain Shan Masood won the toss and elected to field.
Karachi cruised to 121-3 with more than four overs to spare with opening batter Tim Seifert (49) notching the top score of the game.
Quetta are still among the top two with nine points, while Karachi are at No. 5 with six points.
Blessing Muzarabani (2-27) gave Karachi an early breakthrough when Jason Roy (15) top-edged the tall Zimbabwean fast bowler to Hasan at third man in the third over.
Hasan then struck twice in his first over when Saud Shakeel (33) and Khawaja Nafay (17) holed out in the deep as Quetta slipped to 68-3 in the ninth over.
Former Quetta captain Sarfaraz Ahmed’s struggling season continued as he was run out for 7 in a mix-up with new skipper Rilee Rossouw while going for a tight single. Sarfaraz, who was relieved of the captaincy after Quetta failed to get beyond the league stage in the last four seasons, had scored only 22 runs in five innings.
Rossouw also couldn’t accelerate against pace and spin in the middle overs before holing out in leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood’s (2-25) return spell. Hasan then disguised the lower order with his change of pace and claimed two more wickets in his last over.
Masood’s run of poor form continued in his first season as the Karachi skipper edged Mohammad Amir in the second over when on 7.
But Karachi’s overseas signings Seifert and James Vince (27) played confidently against pace and were hardly troubled by mystery spinner Usman Tariq. Quetta was also wasteful in the field with Sherfane Rutherford and Amir dropping sitters in the outfield.
Seifert smashed six fours and two sixes before he missed out on the half-century and was stumped, but veteran Shoaib Malik carried Karachi to a convincing victory with an unbeaten 27 off 20 balls.
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