Quetta Gladiators 158 for 5 (Weatherald 48, Sarfaraz 34*, Faulkner 3-25) beat Lahore Qalandars 140 (David 46, Shahzad 3-14, Shinwari 3-32) by 18 runs
The Quetta Gladiators bagged a much-needed two points to remain afloat in the competition, as their bowlers combined to fashion an 18-run win over the Lahore Qalandars after Jake Weatherald, Azam Khan and Sarfaraz Ahmed had set them up with the bat.
Left-arm pacer Usman Shinwari struck in the first over of the Qalandars' chase to make the perfect start to the Gladiators' defence of 158. Having had the the opposition captain Sohail Akhtar caught behind for a first-ball duck, Shinwari also dismissed Mohammad Hafeez in the fifth over. In between, Fakhar Zaman slogged at Mohammad Hasnain's scrambled-seam delivery and lost his middle stump. The Gladiators had more or less sealed the match by the seventh over when Ben Dunk departed to leave the Qalandars five down for just 47.
Weatherald comes to the rescue
After James Faulkner got Usman Khan to loft one down the throat of deep point in the second over, Weatherald initiated the repair job for the Gladiators. Weatherald was on 7 off 16 deliveries at one stage, having been pinned down by the movement of Shaheen Shah Afridi and the accuracy and pace variations of Faulkner. But Weatherald got stuck into Ahmed Daniyal in the fifth over, after the first four had produced only 16 runs for the Gladiators. He pulled Daniyal to deep square before driving his slower ball past mid-off for two fours in the over.
And with one over of the powerplay to go, Weatherald took the aggressive route against Faulkner as well, cracking two fours and a six off him - a guide down to third man, a flick to deep square leg, and a pull over the square leg boundary. Weatherald didn't spare Haris Rauf and Mohammad Hafeez either, and eventually finished with 48 off 41.
Azam counterattacks, Faulkner applies the brakes, Sarfaraz hits back
After Hafeez and Rashid Khan had removed Cameron Delport and Weatherald in quick succession, Azam Khan counterattacked from No. 5. After picking up a boundary off Rashid by skipping down to a googly, he bashed Rauf for four fours in the 12th over - a gentle dab, a pull and a whip down the leg side followed by a glide to deep point for four. But after Azam struck a six off Rashid in the next over, he fell to a well-disguised Faulkner slower ball off the first ball of the 15th.
Five balls later, Faulkner's sharp reflex catch off his own bowling sent back Mohammad Nawaz. That began a quiet period with the bat for the Gladiators, who could muster only 18 off the next 17 balls before Sarfaraz hit two fours and a six to provide the finishing touches with an unbeaten 34 off 27, having been on 18 off 19 at one point.
Another Qalandars collapse
Having folded for 124 in their previous match after being 86 for 2 in a chase of 153, the Qalandars crumbled once again, as 23 for 1 became 66 for 7, with Zeeshan Ashraf's 16 the highest score among their top five.
Nawaz produced a beauty in the seventh over, giving the ball air outside off and spinning it between Dunk's bat and pad as he looked to drive. He followed that up by bowling Rashid in the ninth over with one that kept a touch low.
David fights as Qalandars take it deep
The Qalandars needed a 84 from 45 balls with three wickets in hand when Tim David decided to throw everything at the Gladiators bowlers. He hammered 4, 6, 6 off the last three balls of Zahoor Khan's first over to drag the required rate down from 11.33 to 9.71. And after Nawaz finished his quota in the next over - he ended with 2 for 16 - David took consecutive fours off Shinwari, before he was caught behind off the last ball of the same over, having made 46 off 27 balls.
The Gladiators' worries wouldn't end with that, with Afridi tonking 12 off 6 and No. 11 Rauf chipping in with 19 off 7. It had come down to 19 needed from 13 balls when Hasnain, who had taken a battering from the two tailenders, wrapped the match up with a yorker to dismiss Rauf.
