The Lahore Qalandars have defended their Pakistan Super League title by a one-run margin, in what was an absolute breath-taking, last ball edge-of-the-seat thriller at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore against the Multan Sultans.
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Requiring 13 runs off the final Over, pacer Zaman Khan bowled his heart and all his tricks out to say the least, but it still boiled down to three runs required off the last delivery. Nailing the Yorker on the final delivery as well, to which Khushdil Shah did all that he possibly could by hitting the gap on the on-side. But the batters could have never completed the third run as the Sultans lost the encounter by the barest of margin.
The hero of the night was well and truly the winning skipper Shaheen Afridi, whose 15-ball 44 set the stage for a huge total on the scoreboard for the Qalandars. With the ball in hand, he did leak runs during the first three Overs, but ultimately got rid of the mighty Kieron Pollard and Tim David to end with figures of 4-0-51-4.
Player of the tournament PSL 2023
The second-highest wicket-taker in PSL 2023, and easily one of the finds of the season – Multan Sultans’ pacer Ishanullah was awarded the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award, for scalping a total of 22 wickets across 12 innings at an average and strike rate of 15.77 and 12.4 respectively.
“I am thankful to God for giving me this success. I have gained a lot of experience from playing in the PSL. Foreign players and senior players have taught me a lot. Rizwan has guided me a lot. I’d like to dedicate this to my father who supported me a lot,” remarked Ishanullah post receiving the award.
First bowler to bag the award
Ishanullah has also become the only bowler to have bagged the ‘Player of the tournament’ across the eight complete seasons of Pakistan Super League.
Consistently bowling above 145 km/h clicks across all the 12 matches in this season, he had got rid of the explosive Lahore opener Mirza Baig (30 off 18) during the grand finale tonight, and returned with figures of 3-0-37-1.
