LAHORE: After Mir Hamza sent back both Lahore Qalandars openers, Karachi Kings could sense their time had come. Finally, a first win of a dismal campaign seemed on the horizon.

Having lost the opening eight games of the round-robin stage, Babar Azam’s men were already out of the race for the playoffs. Their remaining two games, starting with the one against Qalandars on Friday night, were a chance to salvage some pride.

They did, and most importantly, in the Lahore-Karachi grudge match of the HBL Pakistan Super League at the Gaddafi Stadium.

Having set a target of 150 after electing to bat, Kings pacer Hamza starred with four crucial wickets as they restricted the Qalandars to 127.

Hamza had rocked the Qalandars’ chase when he dismissed induced a top edge from Fakhar Zaman, the leading run scorer this season, which was well-taken by Chris Jordan.

The 29-year-old Hamza then made it 10-2 when Abdullah Shafique picked out Qasim Akram at deep fine leg.

Kamran Ghulam (13) and Mohammad Hafeez (33) took the Qalandars past 50 before Imad forced the breakthrough by dismissing Kamran.

Phil Salt picked out Babar off Jordan and Lahore slipped from 52-2 to 64-5 when Hafeez was run out trying to get two runs.

The Qalandars were getting runs hard to get by thanks to disciplined bowling by the Kings and the asking rate kept climbing with each delivery.

David Wiese (31) and Harry Brook (26) gave Qalandars hope of a final flourish but they still had 41 to get off the last three overs.

That’s when Hamza came clutch again. First, his cutter saw Brook, who had hit two fours in his 21-ball innings, top edge to Gregory at square leg and two balls later a perfect yorker got Wiese lbw just after the Namibian all-rounder had hit him for a six.

Jordan then finished off things in the final over where after Shaheen Shah Afridi was run out, Rashid Khan got an inside edge to his yorker that uprooted his middle stump.

Earlier, a quickfire 27 by Gregory had helped the Kings recover from 116-8 to post 149 with Rashid and Zaman Khan equally sharing eight wickets.

Kings had been reduced to 24-2 after Zaman had dismissed opener Joe Clarke and Shaheen trapped Sharjeel Khan lbw.

Babar (39) and Qasim (26) repaired the early damage before Rashid struck to dismiss both of them and the Kings were staring into abyss once again at 81-4.

Rashid knocked back Qasim’s middle stump before the Afghan spinner had Babar stumped by Salt.

Rohail Nazir (18) became Zaman’s second victim with the Kings losing their next three wickets for just 19 runs.

Mohammad Nabi dragged Hafeez onto his stumps and Rashid cleaned up Imad Wasim and Jordan off consecutive deliveries before being denied a hat-trick by Usman Shinwari.

Gregory hit five fours in his 16-ball knock but chopped a Zaman delivery into his stumps on the first ball of the final over and the Qalandars pacer got his fourth when Usman hit him to Hafeez at cover on the fifth.

The Qalandars, already through to the playoffs, looked well set to heap more misery on the Kings. But the Kings weren’t to be denied on this night. At long last, they had found the winning feeling.

Current standings

(Tabulated under: team, matches played, won, lost, points, net run-rate)

Multan Sultans 9 8 1 16 1.226

Lahore Qalandars 8 5 3 10 0.543

Peshawar Zalmi 9 5 4 10 -0.381

Islamabad United 8 4 4 8 0.536

Quetta Gladiators 9 3 6 6 -0.917

Karachi Kings 9 1 8 2 -0.862

Scoreboard

KARACHI KINGS:

Batters & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Joe Clarke c Wiese b Zaman 4 5 1 0 80.00

Babar Azam st Salt b Rashid 39 32 5 0 121.87

Sharjeel Khan lbw b Shaheen 2 4 0 0 50.00

Qasim Akram b Rashid 26 18 3 1 144.44

Rohail Nazir c Wiese b Zaman 18 12 3 0 150.00

Mohammad Nabi b Hafeez 8 12 0 0 66.66

Imad Wasim b Rashid 8 6 0 1 133.33

Lewis Gregory b Zaman 27 16 5 0 168.75

Chris Jordan b Rashid 0 1 0 0 0.00

Usman Shinwari c Hafeez b Zaman 5 11 0 0 45.45

Mir Hamza not out 1 2 0 0 50.00

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-4, W-6) 11

TOTAL (all out, 19.5 overs) 149

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-12 (Clarke), 2-24 (Sharjeel), 3-58 (Qasim), 4-81 (Babar), 5-99 (Rohail), 6-112 (Nabi), 7-116 (Imad), 8-116 (Jordan), 9-146 (Gregory)

BOWLING: Shaheen 4-0-29-1 (1w), Zaman 3.5-1-16-4 (1w), Wiese 2-0-24-0, Haris 4-0-42-0 (1w), Rashid 4-0-17-4 (2w), Hafeez 2-0-16-1.

LAHORE QALANDARS:

Batters & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Abdullah Shafique c Qasim b Hamza 8 12 1 0 66.66

Fakhar Zaman c Jordan b Hamza 1 5 0 0 20.00

Kamran Ghulam c Qasim b Imad 13 15 1 0 86.66

Mohammad Hafeez run out 33 24 4 0 137.50

Phil Salt c Babar b Jordan 8 12 0 0 66.66

Harry Brook c Gregory b Hamza 26 21 1 1 123.80

David Wiese lbw b Hamza 31 23 2 1 134.78

Rashid Khan b Jordan 0 4 0 0 0.00

Shaheen Shah Afridi run out 0 3 0 0 0.00

Haris Rauf not out 1 1 0 0 100.00

Zaman Khan not out 1 1 0 0 100.00

EXTRAS (LB-2, NB-1, W-2) 5

TOTAL (for nine wickets, 20 overs) 127

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-4 (Fakhar), 2-10 (Abdullah), 3-52 (Kamran), 4-63

(Salt), 5-64 (Hafeez), 6-119 (Brook), 7-125 (Wiese), 8-125 (Shaheen), 9-125 (Rashid).

BOWLING: Nabi 4-0-30-0, Hamza 4-0-27-4, Imad 4-0-23-1, Usman 4-0-22-0, Jordan 4-0-23-2.

RESULT: Karachi Kings won by 21 runs

UMPIRES: Asif Yaqoob (Pakistan) and Michael Gough (England)

TV UMPIRE: Rashid Riaz (Pakistan)

MATCH REFEREE: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka)

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2022