Islamabad United vs Lahore Qalandars match 18th PSL – Luke Ronchi’s astonishing innings of 77 runs helped Islamabad United win their second consecutive win over Lahore Qalandars. Ronchi helped ISLU capitalize on the bowling efforts made by their bowlers in the death overs. This is the Qalandars’ 6th continuous defeat in the HBL PSL3. Islamabad United was able to chase down the target of 164 with 2.2 overs to spare.
Asked to bat first, Lahore Qalandars were off to a flying start. The opening stand of 56 runs between Fakhar Zaman and the debut-man Anton Devcich (62 off 42 balls) came out in just 6.4 overs. When Zaman was out caught behind it was Devcich who lead the command. While overs 6 to 9 brought 37 runs for the Qalandars, there was a complete poise in the batting when Agha Salman was dismissed in the 12th over. Denesh Ramdin was promoted up the order where he couldn’t find himself in the song. Due to this Devcich also got under pressure and couldn’t bear the loss of run-rate. Finally, both the batsman was dismissed by Faheem Ashraf in the 17th over. The Qalandars captain played a quick-fire of 33 runs off just 12 balls, but that wasn’t timely.
When Islamabad United came out to chase the target of 164 runs, Duminy and Ronchi set the platform nicely with a 47 runs stand just in 4.3 overs. Ronchi welcomed Sunil Narine with a smashing six over mid-wicket. With the very next two balls, Duminy was caught behind and it was the latter with the last laugh. Shahdab Khan promoted at number 3, where he played an accelerated knock, but it was Ronchi’s show throughout the innings. He picked up his half-century when he tonked Amir Yamin for six over long-off. His innings contained 5 fours and 6 sixes.
Man of the Match ( ISLU vs LQ)
Who could be a better choice for man of the match award than Luke Ronchi, who was the hub Islamabad United batting surge in order to chase down the target?
Standings in the PSL Points Table:
Islamabad United jumps to the 2nd post from where they stand at 5th with their fourth victory. On the other hand, Lahore Qalandars continued to tumble with their 6th consecutive win standing at bottom of the table.