LAHORE, Pakistan, CMC – Former West Indies white-ball captain Kieron Pollard and West Indies left-arm pacer Sheldon Cottrell combined to throttle Multan Sultans into their third successive Pakistan Super League with an 84-run win over defending champions Lahore Qalandars yesterday. Pollard cracked one four and six sixes in an explosive top score of 57 from 34 balls that propelled the Sultans to 160 for five from their allocation of 20 overs after deciding to bat in the qualifier at the Gadaffi Stadium.
Cottrell then destroyed the Qalandars top order inside the Power Play and finished with three for 20 in three overs, and Pollard scalped one for three from one over to be a shoo-in for the Player-of-the-Match award, and the hosts were bowled out for 76 in 14.3 overs. The Qalandars still have a chance to reach the PSL final when they play in the second elimination final tomorrow. In the final on Sunday, Multan will play the winners of that second eliminator in which the Qalandars will face the winners of today’s match between Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United.
After openers Mohammad Rizwan and Usman Khan shared 53 for the first wicket, Sultans ran into trouble on 90 for three in the 13th over. Pollard launched an assault in the last five overs against the Qalandars and put on 65 with Tim David, after they got reprieves with England international Sam Billings and Hussain Talat shelling easy chances. Pollard smashed Pakistan left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi for three sixes in the penultimate over before he was bowled with the second ball of the last over by Harris Rauf, another Pakistan pacer, who was the most successful Qalandars bowler with three for 34 from four overs. Cottrell swung the match decisively when he struck twice in his second over and got Mirza Baig caught behind for eight and Abdullah Shafique lbw for a duck, and he added the scalp of Afridi caught at cover in his third over.
In between, new-ball partner Anwar Ali bowled Fakhar Zaman for six, and the Qalandars stumbled to 28 for four at the end of the Power Play.
Billings made the top score of 19, and he was one of the three batsmen to reach double figures, but the Qalandars, who finished with 14 points from seven wins to top the league table, failed to put up a serious challenge.
