Shaheen Afridi’s Lahore Qalandars face Mohammad Rizwan-led Multan Sultan in the clash of captain and vice-captain of the Pakistan national team in the 14th match of the Pakistan Super League. Shaheen continued his good work in the powerplay as he picked up Rizwan’s wicket in the very first over of the game on a delivery that had glimpses from the KL Rahul dismissal in the T20 World Cup 2021. While he enjoyed a good time against Rizwan, his joy against Iftikhar Ahmed was a short-lived one.
The pacer steamed into his third over of the day and hit Iftikhar on the helmet on his first legal delivery. However, the Multan power-hitter soon redeemed himself with mighty sixes in a 21-run over to send the Lahore fans into dismay.
After delivering a wide short delivery, the pacer went onto the body of Iftikhar, beating his pull and hitting the helmet grille. The batter managed to get a single, went for a customary concussion check-up before taking Shaheen to the cleaners on the next ball he faced. the bowler missed his yorker outside off to go into the slot, Iftikhar bent his back knee and smashed him over long-off for a 97m maximum. Shaheen then angled into the right-hander’s pads but Iftikhar turned on his axis, got low and sent it sailing over long leg boundary behind the wicket.
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He then hit a four off a slower ball towards the backward point as Shaheen gave 21 runs (20 of which went to his own account with one being a leg bye). This was Shaheen’s joint-most expensive over in PSL. He had earlier leaked 20 runs twice – coincidentally against the same side in the previous edition of the tournament.
The two teams are on the opposite spectrum of the fortunes. While Lahore Qalandars are aiming to register their first win of the PSL 9 after suffering four losses in a row, Multan Sultans have four of their first five matches. Lahore is at the bottom of the points table, while Multan are on first ahead of this game.