Raza and Mitchell take Qalandars to second spot after stunning chase against Sultans

Multan Sultans' disorder with the ball at the death took the game away from them as the dynamic Lahore Qalandars duo of Sikandar Raza and Daryl Mitchell put together a quick 89-run stand to take their team to victory, and the second spot on the PSL 2025 table.

After Qalandars asked Sultans to bat, their seamers didn't allow the openers Mohammad Rizwan and Yasir Khan get away in the powerplay, which ended with 39 runs on the board and Yasir's wicket. Rizwan had to graft his way through, and for the longest part, couldn't really shift gears as he needed to.

Tom Curran's slow deliveries created enormous problems for the Sultans batters. He got the better of Shai Hope in the 11th over with a ball that nipped back in sharply and went through the gate, leaving Sultans at a precarious 70 for 3.

That's when Kamran Ghulam joined Rizwan and, finally, there was some impetus to their innings. They found boundaries at regular intervals and that lifted them to a competitive total. Haris Rauf conceded 20 in the last over, which pushed the total to 185. Rizwan batted through the innings to finish on 76 off 48 balls, while Ghulam scored his 52 not out off just 31 balls, scoring at 167.74.

On a pitch where the ball was not coming onto the bat too well, it seemed enough.

Qalandars started their pursuit with clear intent and launched an onslaught from the get-go. Mohammad Naeem fell cheaply, but Abdullah Shafique, at No. 3, played free-flowing cricket from the moment he walked out. His flick off Mohammad Hasnain in the seventh over was a thing of beauty, impeccably timed with poise and class. The platform was set for the middle-order chasing stars Mitchell and Raza, who propelled their side to a position of dominance even though Mitchell took his time to gauge the conditions.

At the end of the 12th over, the game hung in balance as Ubaid Shah foxed Shafique, luring him to chase a delivery in the channel that rose more than he expected. In the same over, he got Sam Billings miscuing to deep backward square to go for a three-ball duck.

But there was no panic. Raza was in his element and seemed to infect Mitchell, who hadn't been too quick with his run-scoring till then.

They hit eight sixes between them in their stand that went into the 19th over, taking 14, 11 and 18 in overs 13, 14 and 15 to put the equation in Qalandars' favour. In the end, it was a stroll to the target as they targeted Ubaid and Akif Javed in the 18th and 19th overs respectively. Mitchell fell for a 38-ball 64 but Raza finished the job with an over to go, ending with 40 not out in 21 balls.

It was a familiar story for Sultans, who are struggling to put up well-knit efforts consistently, which is why they find themselves stuck at the bottom of the table. With their fifth defeat, they are on the brink of elimination and have entered the must-win territory with four games remaining.