Fakhar, Mitchell, Shaheen help Lahore Qalandars crush Karachi Kings
Kings fell to 136 all out after Fakhar and Mitchell helped Qalandars post 201
Rvel Zahid
15-Apr-2025
Shaheen Shah Afridi struck twice in his first over • PCB
Lahore Qalandars 201 for 6 (Fakhar 76, Mitchell 75, Hasan 4-28) beat Karachi Kings 136 (Khushdil 39, Hossain 3-26, Shaheen 3-34) by 65 runs
El Clasico of the PSL didn't live up to the hype and ended up as a mismatch as Lahore Qalandars beat Karachi Kings by 65 runs. The victory was set up by a brilliant 125-run stand for the third wicket between Fakhar Zaman and Daryl Mitchell.
Qalandars called correctly at the toss and even though they lost Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Naeem inside the powerplay, the spine of the batting was still to come. Fakhar and Mitchell's stunning stand lifted the score to 150 for 2 at the end of the 15th over.
Fakhar got a reprieve in the first over when James Vince shelled a sitter at deep square leg but he and Mitchell kept punishing Kings with their calculated risks. Fakhar meted severe treatment to Khushdil Shah, hitting him for three sixes in the tenth over. Similarly, Mitchell tonked Abbas Afridi for a flurry of boundaries in the 11th over. Towards the end, Sam Billings' 19 off ten balls and a cameo from Sikandar Raza helped Qalandars breach the 200-mark.
Hasan Ali was the pick of the bowlers for Kings, returning 4 for 28, while Adam Milne showed massive improvement after the first game, conceding 31 even though he was wicketless.
Kings had already shown they could gun down big totals and with David Warner, Tim Seifert, and James Vince in their ranks, many would have expected a nail-biter. But with no dew and some grass on the pitch, Shaheen Shah Afridi pegged the home team back by removing Warner with his second delivery. Two balls later, Vince - the centurion from the last game - chopped one onto the stumps.
Kings couldn't recover from the massive dent. Shan Masood and Seifert hung around for a while, but the asking rate kept going up. Whenever Kings tried to break the shackles, they lost a wicket. Seifert miscued a reverse sweep against Asif Afridi in the seventh over. In following over, Masood too fell to the same shot against Rishad Hossain.
The match became a mere formality thereon as Kings prevented a massive blow to their net run rate by knocking the ball around before being bowled out for 136.