LAHORE: Karachi Kings defeated Lahore Qalandars by 86 runs in their last league game of the Pakistan Super League-8 at Gaddafi Stadium here on Sunday night. Karachi were able to celebrate just their third win of the tournament, which took them off the bottom of the points table. Karachi’s 11th victory in 17 matches over Lahore helped them finish ahead of Quetta Gladiators in fifth place. Chasing victory target of 197, Lahore lost their top order inside the powerplay and continued to collapse. They were 79 for 7 when Rashid Khan had to retire hurt at the end of the 15th over. He’d got hit in the 14th, trying to pull a James Fuller bouncer, but continued batting after receiving medical attention. But he couldn’t go on for much longer and the whole team were bundled out for 110 in 18.5 overs. Lahore were mostly on the backfoot during the run-chase as they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. Hussain Talat was the highest scorer for Lahore with run-a-ball 25. While other batters to reach double-figures were Haris Rauf (18), Fakhar (13), Kamran Ghulam (11) and Sam Billings (11). Having already qualified for the play-offs, Lahore rested their captain Shaheen Shah Afridi and Sikandar Raza, and played Dilbar Hussain and Shane Dadswell. In Shaeen’s absence, David Wiese led the defending champions.
Earlier, Muhammad Akhlaq, after a poor first two seasons in 2021 and 2022, struck his first PSL half-century. An innings of 51 off 36 balls that set Karachi up for the final flourish provided by the captain Imad Wasim (45 off 31) and Ben Cutting (33 off 14). They were able to put up a total of 196 for 7 after choosing to bat in Lahore, with Tayyab Tahir also contributing a sprightly 40 off 23 balls at No. 3. The Karachi’s bowlers enjoyed as good a time as their batters with Imad, Akif Javed, Mohammad Umar and Imran Tahir all picking up two wickets a piece. But it was Umar who impressed the most with his speed, line and length.