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PSL: Dahani wrecks Lahore as Multan reach final
The defending champions Multan Sultans have reached the Final of PSL for the second consecutive time.
Half-centuries from Rizwan and Rossouw followed by a magnificent spell from Shahnawaz Dahani spoiled Lahore Qalandars’ dream to qualify into the final directly.
Fakhar Zaman scored a brilliant 63 but after his dismissal, the game just slipped away from the hands of Lahore Qalandars but they still have a chance to reach the final and lift their maiden PSL title.
Multan Sultans 20 overs 163-2
Rossouw 65*(42) Hafeez 1-16 Rizwan 53*(51) Samit 1-31
Lahore Qalandars 20 overs 135-9
Fakhar 63 (45) Dahani 3-19 Kamran 20 (17) Willey 2-23
The only team that deserves to play the final match directly is Multan Sultans because they have been exceptional throughout the tournament.
Multan has lost only 1 match in the competition so far and now they are only one step away from lifting their second consecutive PSL trophy.
At one stage Lahore was marching towards victory when Fakhar was batting and smashing the sixes but they lost the momentum after the time-out break due to the brilliant bowling spell from Dahani.
Multan lost their in-form opener, Shan Masood, in the second over as Mohammed Hafeez got him LBW out.
The youngster Aamer Azmat played a very entertaining cameo of 33 runs off just 20 balls that helped Multan to score 45 runs from the powerplay.
Aamer scored 5 boundaries in his knock that allowed Rizwan to settle on the crease.
Rizwan Rossouw partnership
On a tough pitch, Rizwan and Rossouw shared a brilliant unbeaten partnership of 113 runs that helped Multan to score 163 runs from their 20 overs.
Rizwan was not in his full form today and he was facing difficulty to middle the ball well for boundaries.
On the other end, Rossouw was more aggressive and he was scoring quick runs.
The spinners blocked the runs in the middle overs but they were also unable to break this partnership.
Both Rizwan and Rossouw scored wonderful half-centuries in the all-important qualifier game.
Rossouw scored 65 runs from 42 balls while Rizwan remained unbeaten on 53 from 51 balls runs.
The start of Lahore Qalandars was also didn’t good as they lost Abdullah Shafique early in their chase.
Multan didn’t allow any runs and boundaries in those overs that built more pressure on them.
Kamran Ghulam was playing nicely but he got run-out while trying to take a quick single on the call of Fakhar Zaman.
The stay of the experienced Muhammad Hafeez on the crease was also quite short because he was stumped on 0 on the 3rd delivery he has faced in the over.
Fakhar’s half-century
The top scorer of PSL 7 has smashed another half-century today, his 7th in the list.
Fakhar Zaman is totally unstoppable this season as he has scored 582 runs so far.
When the required run rate was climbing over 12. 00, Fakhar took charge against the experienced Imran Tahir and smashed him for 3 consecutive sixes that brought the game in favor of Multan as well.
Fakhar Zaman got out after scoring 63 runs off 45 deliveries.
Lahore Qalandars was looking quite confident due to those sixes.
But Lahore lost its momentum after the time-out break.
Shahnawaz Dahani dismissed Harry Brook, Fakhar Zaman, and Shaheen Afridi to end up figures on 3-19 from his 4 overs.
Dahani brought his side back into the contest with his excellent batting.
Lahore needed 65 runs from the last 42 balls but the wickets started to fell quickly in the middle and Lahore just lost the match by 28 runs