Lahore Qalandars 219 for 6 (Fakhar 67, Billings 50*, Abrar 2-33) beat Quetta Gladiators 140 (Rossouw 44, Rishad 3-31, Shaheen 2-6) by 79 runs
Lahore Qalandars brought Quetta Gladiators down to earth with a crushing 79-run win thanks to a devastating display of power hitting. A 39-ball 67 from Fakhar Zaman, and a blistering unbeaten 19-ball half-century from Sam Billings at the death powered the Qalandars to 219, capitalising on an indifferent bowling performance. Inside three overs, the captain Shaheen Shah Afridi had reduced Gladiators to 10 for 3. The only resistance came in the form of a 45-run stand between Rilee Rossouw and Kusal Mendis, and it wasn't nearly enough to make a dent in Qalandars' total.
Five wickets fell for 25 runs as Qalandars more than made amends for their thumping at Islamabad United's hands in the opener. Gladiators sneaked a tight three overs in at the start, but that was very much an aberration to how Qalandars would bat from thereon. Every batter who faced at least eight deliveries had a strike rate in excess of 170 through the innings, with Abdullah Shafique stroking three consecutive boundaries off Mohammad Amir to set the Qalandars on their way. But it was his takedown of Faheem Ashraf in the final over of the powerplay, extracting 17 runs in the over, that swung the first six Qalandars' way. Ashraf would end up being their favourite whipping boy through the innings.
Zaman remained uncharacteristically subdued in the first eight overs, but once Akeal Hosein induced a clip back to him from Shafique to send him on his way, he cut loose. Fourteen came of Akeal's next over and it was followed by Daryl Mitchell punishing the returning Faheem with two more boundaries and a six. Zaman ensured Gladiators wouldn't be allowed to sneak a couple of overs of subpar spin from veteran Shoaib Malik, smashing him for 16 and knocking him out of the attack once and for all.
Gladiators struck back with three wickets for 17 runs, but if they thought there was a rearguard coming from them, Billings forced them to reconsider. Fourty-four runs off the last 15 balls he faced saw Amir and Faheem Ashraf taken to the cleaners again, with two sixes off the last two balls of the innings bringing up the fastest half-century of the PSL in two years. Qalandars had surged to 219.
Qalandars started with the ball as they'd finished with the bat. Shaheen took his once-customary wicket in the opening over when Saud Shakeel chipped him to mid-on, and he then got rid of the more destructive Finn Allen in his following over. In the over in between, Hasan Nawaz was sent on his way by Asif Afridi.
In the brightest phase of the innings for the Gladiators, Mendis and Rossouw cut loose for the following three overs. In total, 52 runs were scored in the second half of the powerplay thanks to a mixture of canny placement and use of the pace from the Sri Lankan, and the characteristic brute power the South African utilises to such great effect. More crucially, Haris Rauf found Mendis' outside edge towards the end of the powerplay, and Malik, the man who replaced him, was nowhere near as effective.
Rossouw soldiered on, taking big risks that were paying off - until they didn't. Having scored 44 off 18, he went down on one knee and missed a Rishad Hossain topspinner, listening to it rattle the stumps. The game over as a contest, and it heralded a collapse as Rishad and Sikandar Raza scythed through the lower order. There was time enough for Faheem to get a few blows away, but the time for making a difference to the result had long since passed.
