James Vince, Akif Javed guide Kings to their maiden win
By our correspondent
KARACHI: James Vince struck 46 and left-armer Akif Javed produced his career-best figures of 4-28 as Karachi Kings finally broke their winless drought when they demolished Lahore Qalandars by 67 runs in their HBL PSL 8 showdown here at the National Stadium on Sunday night.
This was the first win from Kings in four games.
James Vince (46), Matthew Wade (36) and Imad Wasim (35*) propelled Kings to 185-5.
Akif Javed, who had been picked in place of Mir Hamza who was ruled out of the event due to injury, did a fine job with the leather to skittle Lahore out for 118 in the 18th over.
Set to chase 186, Qalandars had a rapid start but could not go deep as Aamer Yamin gave a breakthrough to Kings when he bowled Fakhar Zaman who played across the line for a 12-ball 15.
In the next over Mohammad Amir got rid of Shai Hope (1), superbly caught at point by Irfan Khan Niazi who dived full-length towards his left.
Mirza Tahir Baig and Kamran Ghulam then found it difficult to score runs fluently with the asking run-rate mounting. Akif Javed removed Tahir Baig when he skied it with keeper Matthew Wade taking an easy catch. Sialkot-born Tahir added 41 for the third wicket with Kamran. He struck two sixes and three fours in his 39-ball 45. In the same over Akif had Kamran Ghulam, held by Shoaib Malik at mid-ff, for a 22-ball 23 to leave Lahore reeling at 87-4 in the 13th over. Kamran struck three fours. Imad Wasim, in the next over, added to Lahore’s misery by removing Hussain Talat, stumped by Wade, for two. Aamir Yamin then had David Wiese (9), Ben Cutting then removed Sikandar Raza (18) and Shaheen Afridi off his two successive balls to leave Lahore struggling at 118-8 in 17 overs. Akif Javed then had Liam Dawson (1) and Zaman Khan (0) to fold Qalandars well behind the target.
Akif was ably by Aamer Yamin (2-18) and Ben Cutting (2-12).
After being invited to bat Karachi Kings had a solid start through James Vince and Matthew Wade who was promoted after Sharjeel Khan was omitted from the squad. The duo put on 70 in 7.1 overs before Wade got run out while coming back for the second run. Kamran Ghulam’s throw was smartly handled by keeper Shai Hope before uprooting the stumps with the diving Australian left-hander well short of the crease.
Wade smashed four fours and a six off David Wiese in his 24-ball 36.
Haider Ali then tried to play aggressively but was bowled by spinner Liam Dawson when he came down the wicket and missed it badly. Haider hit 19 off 16 balls, clobbering one four and a six off Sikandar Raza.
Kings continued to lose wickets and Haris Rauf dislodged in-form Shoaib Malik (10) who thin-egged a widish delivery to keeper Shai Hope and the dismissal was confirmed via referral after the on-field umpire did not give the right-hander out.
Malik hit a straight six off Dawson in his seven-ball effort. In the next over Zaman Khan bowled well-set James Vince off a super yorker for a 36-ball 46, hammering three fours and two sixes and Kings were 124-4 in the 14th over.
Ben Cutting and Imad Wasim then batted freely and added 52 runs off 29 balls for the fifth wicket partnership to take Kings to a fighting total.
Shaheen Afridi clean bowled Cutting with a super yorker in the final over for a 19-ball 20. Cutting hit a six off Shaheen and two fours. Imad Wasim remained not out on a 19-ball 35, hitting two sixes and two fours.
Kings were 61 in six overs powerplay, 100 came in 10.5 overs, 150 in 16.4 overs. The last five overs yielded 55 runs.
Shaheen, Zaman Khan, Haris and Dawson took one wicket each.
Lahore went unchanged with the team which had beaten Multan Sultans. Kings dropped off-colour Sharjeel Khan and Andrew Tye and brought in Ben Cutting and left-arm pacer Akif Javed.