Big-talking Lahore pay heavily for reckless approach

DUBAI: Lahore Qalandars have a penchant for flirting with danger given their sketchy record in the HBL Pakistan Super League thus far. Saturday night was no different either as the big-talking franchise succumbed to a crushing defeat against Quetta Gladiators.

The never-say-die attitude of Quetta was evident all the way as Sarfraz Ahmed marshalled his troops professionally even when his Lahore counterpart Brendon McCullum was somewhere near his ballistic best as the former New Zealand stalwart bludgeoned his way to 30 from just 18 deliveries.

But McCullum was honest by his own admission that Lahore lost the plot when too many wickets fell in the middle overs.

“We were well in front [at 46-0 after 3.2 overs] but passed up another opportunity. We have got to look hard at ourselves. I was disappointed with the energy on the field which was not acceptable when you’re representing a proud place like Lahore,” he said at the post-match presentation. “There’s no shame in losing but we have to give our 100 percent every time. However, there’s still a long way to go though.”

Quetta bounced back on the back of a remarkable 20 dot balls from the miserly Mohammad Nawaz, who returned figures of 2-4 in four overs before being voted man-of-the-match.

“When I came onto bowl, my only aim was to not give McCullum any room,” he said. “Sarfraz told me that line and length was important. So I had to be accurate. After we picked two wickets, I got aggressive and wasn’t afraid to flight the ball. There was hint of some turn which put Lahore in quandary.

An elated Sarfraz commented: “The start was poor but the way we came back was incredible. It’s hard to bowl spin against the kind of batsmen they have, but I have a good understanding with KP [Kevin Pietersen]. He helped as well on the field with words of wisdom,” the skipper pointed out. “The way Nawaz came back here was superb and no praise is enough for him. The intent [Shane] Watson showed was superb, as a team we got a lot of confidence out of this game after the defeat against Karachi Kings the other day.”

Scoreboard

LAHORE QALANDARS:

B.B. McCullum lbw b Nawaz 30
S.P. Narine c Anwar b Rahat 28
Fakhar Zaman c and b Archer 1
C.S. Delport c Anwar b Nawaz 15
Gulraiz Sadaf c Hassaan b Archer 13
Umar Akmal lbw b Hassaan 1
Raza Hasan run out 4
Sohail Akhtar not out 20
Yasir Shah c Sarfraz b Watson 2
Shaheen Shah Afridi b Archer 0
Mustafizur Rahman not out 1

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-2, W-1) 4

TOTAL (for nine wkts, 20 overs) 119

FALL OF WKTS: 1-46, 2-60, 3-60, 4-79, 5-81, 6-89, 7-101, 8-105, 9-106.

BOWLING: Archer 4-0-23-3; Rahat Ali 4-0-26-1; Watson 4-0-35-1 (1w); Mohammad Nawaz 4-1-4-2; Hassaan Khan 4-0-28-1.

QUETTA GLADIATORS:

Asad Shafiq not out 38
S.R. Watson b Narine 66
Umar Amin not out 13

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1, NB-1) 3

TOTAL (for one wkt, 14 overs) 120

FALL OF WKT: 1-92.

DID NOT BAT: K.P. Pietersen, R.R. Rossouw, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Hassaan Khan, Anwar Ali, J.C. Archer, Rahat Ali.

BOWLING: Raza Hasan 2-0-19-0; Shaheen Shah Afridi 2-0-12-0 (1nb, 1w); Yasir Shah 4-0-38-0; Narine 4-0-40-1; Mustafizur Rahman 2-0-10-0.

RESULT: Quetta Gladiators won by nine wickets.