This was all from this game and our side. This was Anmol Ahuja along with my co-commentators Badal Pareek and Rahul Krish. Until next time take care...
Shaheen Afridi | Winning captain: It was a good game, credit to Islamabad for coming so close. The bowlers and myself have worked on our bowling a lot. As bowlers we believe that anything above 170 is defendable. We had a middle-order collapse, which needs to be looked at. I am enjoying my captaincy a lot.
Shadab Khan | Losing captain: Munro and Myself should have finished the game but I played at a bad shot at the wrong time. The total was gettable, Qalandars have one of the best bowling attacks in the tournament and we should respect it. We will reflect and work on some minor things before our next match
Zaman Khan | Player of the match: Shaheen bhai told me to remain calm and enjoy myself out there. He adviced me to use my variations
Lahore Qalandars come out victorious in this encounter and they have snatched this game away from the jaws of defeat. Some top quality death bowling by Zaman who was ably supported by Harris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi. Mightily impressed by how Afridi rotated his bowlers and maintained a cool head even when things were not going his way.
We can't get past without talking about that final over, Zaman just had 12 to defend from the final over and Islamabad was right in the game with Azam Khan and Asif Ali at the crease. Couple of wides but he was bang on with his thinking, nailed the Yorkers, excellent change of pace and made the batters work for their runs.
This will be a hard loss to swallow for the Islamabad United they were cruising until the 15th over mark with Shadab Khan and Munro at the crease. The skipper wanted to go big and holed out to the man from Afghanistan. Rashid Khan went wicketless in his first three overs but came out with the upperhand in that battle. Rauf struck in the very next over and had Munro top-edging to short fine.
With two new batters at the crease, Shaheen bought himself back into the attack and applied the squeeze. The 8 run over was followed by a brilliant one from Harris Rauf who gave away just nine from the nineteenth. A combined bowling effort sees Qalandars home.
Earlier in the day they put up 174 on the board, they were 10-15 runs short of where they would have wanted to be. Fakhar Zaman and Shafique got them off to a flier with 83 from just seven overs but they lost their way through the middle overs, losing wickets at regular intervals. Harry Brook, David Wiese and Rashid Khan put in some crucial lower order contributions to lead to a competitive score.
Lahore take the points and separate themselves from the teams at three and four with their third consecutive win. The next game between Peshawar zalmi and Multan Sultans will begin shortly, switch tabs to catch the live action from that game. On to the presentation now...
OVER 20
Islamabad United
166/5
Faheem Ashraf
0(1)
Azam Khan
10(12)
Zaman Khan
1-29(4.0)
19.6 Z Khan to F Ashraf
0 Dot to end the match. Full and just outside off, Ashraf is beaten on the drive towards leg side. Take a bow 20-year old Zaman!! Lahore sail through by 8 runs!!