Sharjah: Quetta Gladiators’ crashed to Lahore Qalandars’ opener Fakhar Zaman’s aggressive 94 off 50 balls studded with six sixers and nine fours. This knock gave Lahore a total of 186 for four and helped restrict Quetta to 169 for six in 20 overs and win by 17 runs. After the match Zaman received huge praise from everyone, including the losing team’s skipper Sarfraz Ahmad and coach Moin Khan.

Fakhar, who was the hero of Pakistan’s Champions Trophy triumph, said that his new approach to his batting has helped him. “My thinking now is take time and pace my innings. I’ve given myself more time these days and then I play my game. Been trying for a while to play a long innings. Luck was on my side today and I used my start. I enjoyed my batting.”

Fakhar’s enjoyment upset Quetta’s plan of clinching the top slot in the ranking table. Quetta captain Sarfraz candidly remarked: “We had a discussion with the team management that we need to win today, but Fakhar played a brilliant innings. We have to credit Fakhar’s innings, it was clean striking. We have one more match left and we can still finish in the top two.”

Moin felt that Lahore’s total was gettable. “Fakhar played very well. He had good partnerships too. Our fielding wasn’t up to date. We had proved our batting strength before, but it did not click today.”

Zaman also felt his team should have won the earlier round matches too. “In the first phase our (team) combinations were not working, we were chopping and changing a lot,” he said

Lahore skipper Brendon McCullum is delighted that his team after a string of six losses, have made a good comeback with three wins on the trot. “It hasn’t been our best tournament but in the last three games we have been outstanding. The style of cricket we have been playing off-late is pretty impressive. It’s a pleasure to be a part of the group which is committed. I think we lost critical moments in the initial stages, precisely three games which we should’ve won. The pressure too had gone off in the last three games.”

McCullum then picked his young 17 year old pacer Shaheen Afridi, who bowled well to restrict Quetta, for special praise. “Shaheen — I like him a lot. He’s got an immense amount of talent and a good strong head on his shoulders. I’m sure he’s gonna be a superstar.”

Brief scores:

Lahore Qalandars bt Quetta Gladiators by 17 runs. Lahore 186 for 4 in 20 overs (Fakhar Zaman 94, Gulraiz Sadaf 42n.o, Sunil Narine 20n.o) Quetta 169 for 6 in 20 overs (Jason Roy 36, Rilee Rossouw 42, Sarfraz Ahmad 28n.o, Sunil Narine 2 for 22, Yasir Shah 2 for 35) Man of the match: Fakhar Zaman