Quetta Gladiators 138 for 4 (Rossouw 60*, Hasan Nawaz 49, Raza 1-17) beat Lahore Qalandars 134 (Haseebullah 33, Tariq 3-18, Jahandad 3-35) by six wickets
A terrific partnership of 104 from 69 balls between Rilee Rossouw and Hasan Nawaz delivered a comfortable six-wicket win for Quetta Gladiators over Lahore Qalandars with 22 balls to spare on a challenging batting wicket in Karachi. The victory helped Gladiators jump two places on the points table to go fourth. Qalandars, who have now lost three consecutive matches and have four losses from six matches, remain stuck at seven.
This pitch had all the ingredients to make the target of 135 a tough task, with the low bounce and excessive grip in the surface for the older ball, but a sparkling counterattack from Hasan, and Rossouw's composure helped their side through after the wickets of Shamyl Hussain and Saud Shakeel earlier in the powerplay. They added 31 runs across the last three powerplay overs which served as the much needed impetus.
Usama Mir bowled two brilliant overs after the powerplay, conceding two and five from the seventh and ninth overs of the innings, but those two overs did not worry the batters much as they took apart Haris Rauf from the other end who went for 11 and 10. It left only 60 to be chased from the last 10 overs and Hasan pulled Gladiators closer to the victory in the next over as he smoked Usama for a four and a six.
The 13th over made the victory certain as Rossouw smashed Daniel Sams for two fours to bring up his second half century of the season and Hasan capped that over with another four to leave only 25 from the last seven and Gladiators, despite the two wickets of Hasan and Dinesh Chandimal, crossed the line with ease.
That it was going to be another tough outing for the Qalandars batters became certain after the dismissals of Mohammad Naeem and Fakhar Zaman inside the first three overs. The two openers had struck two boundaries each of Saqib Khan and Jahandad Khan in the first two overs, but Naeem chopped on a length ball from Jahandad in the second over due to the lack of bounce in the surface. Alzarri Joseph bowled a ripper, a searing full length delivery shaping in, to rattle Fakhar's stumps in the next over and it opened the floodgates.
Qalandars have found it difficult to bat in Karachi and this was the third time in as many matches in the port city that they were bowled out. Their hopes that the addition of Sri Lanka's Charith Asalanka would improve their showing were shattered after a quick short of length delivery from Joseph towards the end of the powerplay. Saqib got Mohammad Farooq trapped in front of stumps right after the powerplay. Their woes amplified with the introduction of spin as Abrar Ahmed and Usman Tariq put a stranglehold on the Qalandars batters.
Usman's introduction in the 11th over brought the wickets of Abdullah Shafique and Shaheen Shah Afridi in three balls and he later beat Sikandar Raza with the lack of pace to take three wickets for only 18 runs from four over. Abrar bowled 13 dots across his four overs to concede just 14 runs, despite going wicketless.
Qalandars seemed on course to another total of less than 100 but Mir's sizzling cameo of 22 from seven balls put something on the board for his team to defend. He smashed Joseph for back to back sixes in the penultimate over and smoked Jahandad for a six and a four at the start of the last over before he was caught at cover.
