David Wiese stars as Lahore edge past Islamabad in a nail-biting affair

Lahore Qalandars edge past Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2022 Eliminator in a nail-biting clash at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore on Friday (February 25). They will now take on Mohammad Rizwan-led Multan Sultans in the final on Sunday (February 27) at the same venue.

Chasing 169 to win, Qalandars needed eight to win off the final over. However, David Wiese, who initially set up the game smashing 27 runs off the final over, held his nerve with the ball in the final over to see his team home.

United were in all sorts of trouble after they lost four wickets in the powerplay, with in-form opening batter Alex Hales facing just eight deliveries in that period. He found a reliable partner in Azam Khan along with whom he stitched together a 79-run stand for the fifth wicket, before the latter was run-out for a 28-ball 40.

Hales too was dismissed shortly after that for 38 off 29 to give Qalandars a glimmer of hope. That's all Qalandars needed as they continued to put pressure on the batters. Asif Ali, United's only hope at that point holed out in the deep off the final ball of the penultimate over with just eight required off the last seven deliveries.

Mohammad Wasim then refused singles off the first two deliveries of the final over and was then run-out off the third trying to sneak in a second run. Wiese then removed Waqas Maqsood off the very next delivery to send his team into the final.

Earlier, Qalandars put up 168 for 7 in their 20 overs after electing to bat first. Liam Dawson got rid of the opening batters Fakhar Zaman and Phil Salt early, but Qalandars managed to bounce back, first with a brilliant 73-run stand for the third wicket between Abdullah Shafique (52) and Kamran Ghulam (30) and then some late onslaught from Wiese.

This is just the second PSL final for Lahore. They had previously lost to Karachi Kings in the PSL 2020 final.

Brief scores:

Lahore Qalandars 169 for 7 in 20 overs (Abdullah Shafique 52, Kamran Ghulam 30; Liam Dawson 2 for 24) beat Islamabad United (162 in 19.4 overs (Azam Khan 40, Alex Hales 38; Haris Rauf 2 for 31) by 6 runs

Player of the match: David Wiese