LAHORE: Khawaja Nafay was not overly overwhelmed by the occasion. The 22-year-old Karachi native, who was participating in just his second HBL Pakistan Super League game, displayed remarkable poise and measured aggressiveness to help Quetta Gladiators easily defeat Lahore Qalandars on Monday at the Gaddafi Stadium.
With the aid of four fours and three sixes, the right-hander scorched to an undefeated 61 off 31 balls, helping the Gladiators win by five wickets for their second consecutive tournament win.
Nafay, who gained notoriety as a T20 product by posting videos of himself batting in local tournaments on social media, performed like a true professional, combining a masterful rotation of strikes with a variety of outlandish strokes.
Jahandad Khan’s blitz and Sahibzada Farhan’s half century, which had lifted the Qalandars to 187-7, were canceled out by his innings.
Nafay made use of the foundation that Jason Roy (24 off 19) and Saud Shakeel (40 off 23) laid early on. Of those runs, 61 came during the powerplay, during which the two played some incredibly beautiful shots.
The Gladiators lost key wickets in skipper Rilee Rossouw, Sarfraz Ahmed, and Sherfane Rutherford following the openers’ four-ball dismissals.
However, Nafay was unfazed, as he initially took on pacer Haris Rauf with a scoop over fine leg and a blazing upper cut for sixes. For his second boundary, he crushed spinner Salman Fayyaz into the covers.
Rutherford was the next to fall, but Nafay was helping the Gladiators towards the goal, reaching his half century in 27 balls after hitting Shaheen for his third six and hitting Haris for another boundary. The Qalandars were losing wickets by the bucketload.
On the first ball of Zaman’s final over, he scored another four to cap off the chase.
In the past, Jahandad and Farhan performed best on a surface that promoted grip and mobility. Jahandad proved his worth as a power hitter with an undefeated 45 off 17 balls as the left-hander hammered three fours and four sixes with his unconventional batting style. Jahandad was selected for the PSL because to his outstanding performance as a fast bowler.
At 62-2, the left-hander entered the batting when Qalandars was having difficulty unshackling. Sent high up the order, Jahandad surprised everyone in the 16th over by hitting spinner Abrar Ahmed for three explosive sixes after signaling his coming with an outside edge off Mohammad Hasnain.
The 20-year-old representing Rawalpindi cleared the line with a slog-sweep, an unforced hit, and a single over long-on off Abrar, displaying incredible wrist work and without shifting his feet.
He punished Mohammad Wasim Jr.’s careless ball for his final boundary in the last over, and he dispatched Hasnain for an additional six over deep mid-wicket in the eighteenth over.
Farhan’s opening performance of 62 off 43, which included six fours and half as many sixes, laid the foundation for Jahandad’s innings at a time when the Qalandars were struggling to score runs.
The host team only scored 43 runs during the powerplay after losing Fakhar Zaman to Akeal Hosein early in the innings. In the first six overs, Farhan kept the scoreboard moving. In the seventh over, he took on Abrar and hit him for a six off an off-side boundary and a superbly timed mid-slog-sweep.
Abrar was dubbed a “mystery spinner” for tricking Rassie van der Dussen into cleaning up the South African. At the half, Qalandars led 67–2.
Following a brilliant pull by Wasim for his sixth boundary on the previous ball, Farhan was given a second life when Hasnain could not hold onto a regular catch at third-man. In the following over, he reached his fifty in forty-nine balls.
In the thirteenth over, Farhan played two consecutively superb pick-up strokes off Hasnain. Then, on the following ball, he found the fielder at cover, and it was all Jahandad’s fault.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
