LAHORE: Lahore Qalandars defeated the unbeaten Multan Sultans by 53 runs in the 17th match of seventh edition of the HBL-Pakistan Super League here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday.

Batting first, Qalandars set a target of 183 runs for win but Multan Sultans never looked into the game after the early departure of their batsman and top-scorer Shan Masood who was deceived by a slow off-cutter from Shaheen Shah Afridi. Skipper Muhammad Rizwan also looked off-colour and seemed struggling at a tricky Gaddafi Stadium pitch that needed a lot of patience from the batsman before offering scores. He could make only 20 off 27 balls before being clean bowled by Rashid Khan.

Sohaib Maqsood remained top scorer of Multan with 29 off 26 balls while Tim David made 24 and Khushdil Shah 22. Zaman Khan took three wickets while Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Rashid Khan all snared two wickets apiece to register a convincing victory as Sultans were bowled out for 130 runs in 19.3 overs.

Earlier, Lahore Qalandars handed a 183-run target to unbeaten Multan Sultans. The start of Qalandars innings was not promising as Anwar Ali removed opener Abdullah Shafiq in the very first over. However, the top run-scorer of this season Fakhar Zaman continued his golden run and along with Kamran Ghulam added 86 runs for the second wicket. The Qalandars felt it tough to get runs freely in the earlier part of the innings but started showing their muscles soon.

Kamran Ghulam scored 42 runs before his departure off 38 balls including six boundaries. Fakhar completed his another half-century in the event off just 31 balls. He was next to go after scoring 60 runs off 37 balls that included two sixes and five boundaries. All-rounder Muhammad Hafeez also started his innings slowly but paced up the things in the latter part of the innings.

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