Karachi Kings crush Lahore Qalandars to lift maiden PSL trophy

This is the first time these two sides are featuring in a PSL final.

KARACHI (Dunya News) – With the brilliant knock by star batsman Babar Azam, Karachi Kings on Tuesday crushed Lahore Qalandars in the final match of Pakistan Super League (PSL) to lift the maiden PSL trophy.

The Karachi team, captained by Imad Wasim, became the first champions in this T20 league by winning by 5 wickets.

Playing first, Lahore Qalandars scored 134 for 7 in 20 overs in the final match of the league’s fifth season played at the National Stadium in Karachi on Tuesday, after which the Karachi Kings achieved the target in 18.4 overs, losing 5 wickets with the help of Babar Azam’s brilliant innings.

Babar hit 7 fours in his unbeaten innings of 49 balls. He completed his fifty off 40 balls with fours off the fourth ball of the 15th over of Pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi’s innings. Babar added 61 runs for the third wicket with Walton Chadwick (22).

Chasing a 135-run target, Karachi’s first wicket fell as Sharjeel Khan (13), who was caught by Fakhar Zaman off Samit Patel. Sharjeel hit 2 fours off 12 balls. Then Alex Hales (11) was bowled by Dilbar Hussain, who hit a four off 11 balls. Babar led the innings with Walton and took the team’s score to 100. Walton scored 22 off 27 balls with the help of a four which was lbw out by Dilbar Hussain.

For the Lahore team, Haris Rauf took two wickets, which showed the way of pavilion to Iftikhar Ahmed (4) and Sherfan Rutherford (0) on consecutive balls of the 18th over. Apart from him, Dilbar Hussain took 2 wickets while Samit Patel got one wicket.

 

The final -- one of the most anticipated in the PSL s short history, given the rivalry between Pakistan s two biggest cities -- failed to live up to the hype as Lahore managed just 134-7 after winning the toss and batting on a flat National Stadium pitch.

The Kings will take home a glittering trophy plus a $500,000 purse, while Lahore received $200,000.

The fifth edition of Pakistan s inaugural Twenty20 league started on February 20, but was abandoned after 30 of its 34 matches after England player Alex Hales, playing for Kings, reported symptoms of Covid-19.

It resumed on Saturday behind closed doors, with the Kings beating the Multan Sultans in the qualifier while Lahore downed Peshawar Zalmi and the Sultans in two eliminators to book a place in the final.

Lahore lost their way after a confident 68-run start in ten overs, provided by Bangladeshi opener Tamim Iqbal (35) and Fakhar Zaman (27).

They lost both of them and Mohammad Hafeez in the space of seven deliveries with the addition of just two runs, spoiling a solid start.

Iqbal struck four boundaries and a six off 38 balls while Zaman had four boundaries in his 24-ball stay.

Karachi pace trio Umaid Asif (2-18), Waqas Maqsood (2-18) and Arshad Iqbal (2-26) bowled nagging line and length to keep the flow of runs down as well as taking wickets.

Squad