The Karachi leg of the Pakistan Super League came to an entertaining end on Monday, 7 February with Quetta Gladiators chasing down 205 runs against Lahore Qalandars. With a bowling attack as good as Qalandars, it was expected that they would defend such a huge total with ease, but as it turned out, Quetta had other things planned.
Jason Roy, who joined the side flying out from his national duties at the Caribbean shores, announced his arrival in style hitting a breathtaking century in just 49 runs.
Jason Roy show
Roy’s exploits while chasing is well known in the cricketing circles, with the specialist white ball batter being much better in the second innings than setting a target. But nobody could have ever imagined the onslaught that he would bring with him on Monday.
With 205 to bring down against the likes of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Rashid Khan, Roy set out on his path in the very first over, hitting captain Shaheen for 15 runs. Barely giving strike to his partner on the other end, Roy stormed to his half century in just 20 balls, while his partner had barely played 2 deliveries.
Quetta Gladiators lost opener Ahsan Ali in the final over of the powerplay after scoring 7 off 8 balls, but it would be a lie to say that a single soul cared.
It was a Jason Roy show after all.
He carried a struggling Vince on his shoulders and scored a 49 ball hundred before getting out for 116 in 57 balls. He had helped Quetta post 172 runs by the 16th over, and it seemed like the chase was in their bag.
The wicket of Iftikar Ahmed slowed things down a little bit, but promoted Mohammad Nawaz’s lusty blow to Haris Rauf in the penultimate over made sure that there was enough margin for error for both the batsmen out there to make some mistakes.
Needing 5 to win from the last over, Zaman Khan did very well to stay away from James Vince’s arc, but a single and a six buried the game with three balls remaining.
A very different first innings
In heavy contrast to the second innings, Lahore found it very hard to get underway in the first few overs. Batsman of the tournament - Fakhar Zaman struggled to read the pace of the pitch and Lahore were able to put up just 44 runs in the powerplay. But after the departure of his opening partner Abdullah Shafique (32 off 27) things changed.
Fakhar knew that his second of hesitation resulted in Shafique’s runout and chose to bat himself into form. A counter-attacking stay in the other end from Kamran Ghulam helped as he hit 2 sixes en route his 13-ball 19 before getting out to an exceptional boundary line catch from James Vince. Ghulam’s departure in the 12th over led to a flurry of wickets in the next few overs and just when Quetta seemed to have gotten a hold it, young Harry Brook and the veteran David Wiese hit back.
The last three overs resulted in 50 runs as Harry Brook went on to make an unbeaten 41 off just 17 balls, finding support from Wiese who scored 22 off 9.
That was not to be enough, but Lahore Qalandars captain Shaheen Afridi argued that it was just not their day and he still had good belief in his own team.
The Pakistan Super League will now go on a two day break, before resuming in Lahore from 10 February.