Afridi’s five-fer hands Qalandars season’s first win

Shaheen Shah Afridi’s magical spell with the ball finally broke Lahore Qalandars’ losing streak, giving the team its first win of the season after six straight losses to salvage some of its pride.

The young pacer claimed his median five wickets haul for just four runs, helping restrict Multan Sultans to 114 – which Lahore chased down with six wickets in hand and eight balls remaining.

Lahore lost Fakhar Zaman soon after, as he holed out to Pollard in the deep off Imran Tahir's delivery at 16 off 11 balls. Anton Devcich looked solid but he fell to Shoaib Malik for 22 off 9 runs.

Agha Salman only managed 3 before falling to Mohammad Irfan, leaving Lahore at 41-3 (4.4 overs).

Skipper Brendon McCullum leading the charge with the bat, taking Lahore closer to the target.

Gulraiz Sadaf tried to anchor the inning, taking 40 balls to score 27 when he was caught in the deep in the over of Saif Badar, who earlier dropped McCullum twice.

Multan were off to a breezy start after they won the toss and opted to bat against Lahore Qalandars in today's first game in Dubai.

Kumar Sangakkara, who has been in red-hot form this season, showed no mercy to Lahore's bowlers. He smashed a brisk 45 off 30 balls, before getting out on Narine's delivery.

Sohaib Maqsood, the next man in, and Ahmed Shehzad kept the momentum going, before Shehzad was dismissed by McClenaghan for 32.

Narine then bowled Sohaib Maqsood at 16, slowing down Multan's run rate.

However, the real dent was made by Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissing Shoaib Malik, R Whiteley and Saif Badar, all in the same over, dealing a sharp blow to Multan's quest for a big total.

With the middle and lower order exposed, Multan struggled to get runs, going several overs without any boundary.

Shaheen cleaned up the rest of the order, taking two more wickets to complete his five-wicket haul.