Pakistan Super League 7

Pakistan Super League 7^th edition commenced on 27^th January 2022 in Karachi. The opening match saw the defending champions Multan Sultans take on the Karachi Kings in National Stadium Karachi. The latter ended the tournament languishing at the bottom of the table with only one win against Lahore Qalandars, whereas the Sultans topped the table convincingly with having lost only one match to Qalandars in the Lahore leg of the tournament. Qalandars are a generous team indeed, grabbing points from the rich (Sultans) and giving points to the poor (Kings).

Every team played each other once in the Karachi leg which ended on 7^th February followed by a 2 day break in which the teams moved to Lahore to play the second leg of the tournament. In Karachi, only 25% of spectators were allowed which resulted in the stadiums looking empty. Regardless of the home advantage, the home team, Karachi Kings lost all their matches. Multan Sultans, on the other hand, won all their matches in Karachi. The Karachi leg of the tournament ended peacefully, without any controversies.

The real fun began when the tournament shifted to Lahore, the home city of the most loved team of the PSL, Lahore Qalandars. Unlike the Karachi leg, 100% crowd was allowed in Lahore. And in front of the loud and proud crowd, Lahore Qalandars defeated the mighty Multan Sultans. Almost all the matches in Lahore were fully sold out. The atmosphere was riveting. Moreover, the Lahore leg saw the return of Lahore’s very own, yet spoilt, Umar Akmal representing Quetta Gladiators after a hiatus of 2 years.

Karachi Kings’ only win in the tournament came against Lahore Qalandars in front a partisan Lahori crowd which is a sight most dreaded by the Qalandars’ fan. Subsequently, Qalandars lost one more match against Peshawar Zalmi which was the last match of the group stage. The last match turned out to be the best match of the group stages. Lahore required 24 runs in the last over. Shaheen Afridi was on strike and all hope was lost as not much is expected from the bowlers when they wield willow. Shaheen Afridi went berserk targeting the young Muhammad Umer. Within a blink, 7 runs were required on the last 3 balls. What came next were 2 dot balls. 7 runs off 1 ball. Muhmmad Umer erred in length and Shaheen Afridi punished the ball for a 6. Spectators, who were seen leaving the stadium an over ago were stopped in their tracks, forced to wait for the super over. Unluckily, Qalandars lost the super over as Wahab Riaz chose this very over to exhibit his prowess and bowled brilliantly.

James Faulkner controversy also took place in Lahore where he damaged the PC Hotel Lahore’s property by throwing his bat and helmet at the chandelier in PC Hotel. It was an apparent payment dispute which was well countered by PCB. James Faulkner was certainly on the wrong end and PCB took firm action against him by banning him from all the future editions of the Pakistan Super League.

On conclusion of the group stages, the top 4 teams were Multan Sultans, Lahore Qalandars, Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United.

The top two teams, Sultans and Qalandars faced off against each other in the qualifiers. After a hard fought battle,  and a few batting blunders by Qalandars, Multan Sultans emerged victorious and booked themselves a place in the finals under the great captaincy of Muhammad Rizwan. What followed the next day was eliminator 1, where Peshawar Zalmi faced Islamabad United. The game went onto the last over and Islamabad United shattered the dreams of the Zalmis to go forward in the tournament.

Lahore Qalandars vs Islamabad United. Eliminator 2. The match certainly was the best match of PSL 7 by far. Lahore Qalandars scored 168 after the last over heroics of the Namibian captain, David Wiese. What looked like an easy chase, was made really difficult for Islamabad by the world class Qalandars’ bowling line up. Azam Khan and Alex Hales steadied the ship after United lost 4 wickets under just 50 runs. As soon as they got out, Islamabad was in a winning position with their ace hitter Asif Ali on strike. Asif Ali got caught in the penultimate over, and Muhammad Wasim Jr took all responsibility on himself to take Islamabad home. Shaheen Afridi trusted David Wiese with the last over. 8 runs were required, 2 wickets were in hand and Wasim jr was on strike. After refusing to take singles on the first 2 balls of the over, Wasim strived for a second run which wasn’t there and was run out. 6 runs were required on 3 balls now. It started to rain heavily also. Waqas Maqsood tried to go for a 6 on the very next ball and falling just a metre short of boundary was caught by Abdullah Shafique. The noise of the crowd and emotions of the players were very well reflected by the rain. The rain blended in perfectly with Lahore Qalandars win.

Lahore Qalandars in finals at the Qaddafi Stadium Lahore against the defending champions Multan Sultans on 27^th February. It couldn’t get any better than this.

Lahore Qalandars won the toss and invited Multan sultans to bowl first. The crowd was so loud that even Muhammad Rizwan couldn’t hear what Bazid Khan was saying to him after the toss. Cutting it short, Lahore had a shaky start losing important wickets early in the power play. It was then Muhammad Hafeez who took control of the innings and went on to score 69 runs from 46 balls; his first 50 in HBL PSL 7 and that too in a final when Qalandars needed it the most. Later on, Harry Brook and David Wiese went all in hitting the ball as hard as they can to help achieve Qalandars a defendable total. The strike rate of Brooks and Wiese was 186.36 and 350.00 respectively. And their fireworks at the end helped Lahore reach a total of 180.

Muhammad Rizwan and Shan Masood started off well but the veteran, Muhammad Hafeez, broke the 35 run partnership by taking the important wicket of Muhammad Rizwan.  Shan Masood was soon run out by Fakhar Zaman followed by 3 more wickets. Within no time, Sultans were 63-5. Lahore Qalandars were marching towards their first PSL title after 7 years of patience. After the Sultans lost 5 wickets, Khushdil Shah and Tim David played cautiously. At this point, Multan still had some hope as both the batters on the crease were known for their power hitting. After a brisk partnership of 51, Tim David fell prey to Shaheen Shah Afridi on the first ball of the 17^th, and on the 4^th ball Shaheen bowled David Willey out with a perfect yorker. In the next over, Haris Rauf bowled Khushdil Shah out and then only the tailenders were left stranded on the crease. 2 wickets were in hand and 2 overs were left. It was practically impossible for Multan Sultans to win the game from here. On the 5^th ball of the penultimate over, Shaheen Shah bowled Rumman Raees out brilliantly and on the 3^rd ball of the last over David Wiese got rid of Imran Tahir, sealing the deal for the Qalandars. Muhammad Hafeez was named player of the final for his brilliant knock of 69 and taking 2 important wickets.

After a long wait of 7 years, Lahore Qalandars won the Pakistan Super League lead by a young captain Shaheen Afridi, infront of their home crowd in a jam packed Qaddafi Stadium. All hail the Qalandars!