KARACHI: Sharjeel Khan and Babar Azam hammered undefeated half centuries as Karachi Kings crushed Lahore Qalandars by 10 wickets, with 2.5 overs to spare, in their HBL Pakistan Super League5 (PSL) match at National Stadium here on Thursday evening. Azam scored 69 runs off 46 balls, hitting eight boundaries and a six, while Sharjeel played a knock of 74 runs off 59 balls, striking five boundaries and as many sixes and was declared player of the match. With this victory, Karachi have now moved up to the second spot on the points table and are only behind Multan Sultans.
Earlier, Lahore set a 151-run target for their opponents after Karachi won the toss and opted to field first. Skipper Sohail Akhtar and Fakhar Zaman opened the innings with the former scoring 68 off 49 balls before being dismissed at 14.1 overs off a leg-before-wicket delivery by Arshad Iqbal. Zaman managed to score 17 off 13 deliveries. He was the first wicket to go at 4.1 overs off Umaid Asif’s ball. Mohammad Hafeez – who was still standing at the end of the innings – was the only other major contributor, adding 35 runs off 22 deliveries. The remaining three wickets claimed by Karachi were those of Chris Lynn, Ben Dunk, and Samit Patel who each added a paltry 5, 9, and 5 runs, respectively, to the scoreboard. Umaid and Arshad claimed two wickets each while Chris Jordan claimed one. Karachi’s star bowler Mohammad Amir, however, could not shine and gave away 30 runs in his four overs.