Lahore Qalandars middle order Thursday failed again as they struggled to a modest total of 150-5 against Karachi Kings in the 26th match of the Pakistan Super League 2020 at the National Stadium Karachi.

Sohail Akhtar and M Hafeez stood out among the Qalandars batsmen with clean hitting and played crucial role to take their team’s total to some respectability.

After putting into the bat, Qalandars captain Sohail Akhtar survived a second ball review for a caught behind appeal by Amir, who was quite confident about the catch but review showed his bat had touched the ground and there was no contact between the bat and the bowl. Sohail responded well by hitting two consecutive boundaries to Amir next.

Fakhar Zaman and Sohail gave a good start to Qalnadars with controlled aggression. It was the last ball of the power play bowled by Umaid Asif when Fakhar tried to pull hard a short delivery and dragged the ball into his stumps instead as Qalandars finished power play 49-1. Fakhar scored 17 runs off 13 balls and hit three boundaries

Chris Lynn was the next to come to bat but he too could not prolong his stay. He came down the pitch in a try to hit Arshad Iqbal out of the park but failed to time the ball and Iftikhar Ahmed took a very good running catch at the deep midwicket as Lynn departed after scoring just five runs on as many balls.

Sohail reached his fifty when he pushed a delivery of Usama Mir to on side to take a single. He used 37 deliveries to reach the mark and hit seven boundaries and a six in the process.

Dunk took his time to settled down and hit a boundary on fifth ball he faced on onside to Usama as Qalandars reached 78-2 at the halfway mark.

Sohail mishit an Arshad delivery that went a little high without power and Alex Hales while running behind tried to take the catch, which could be a memorable one but he failed to hold onto it. Qalandars struggled to add pace to their innings and Sohail hit the next boundary after a gap of eight balls as Qalndars reached 90 runs after 12 overs.

Dunk looked off-colour and was feeling it hard to hit the ball hard. In next over he was beaten by an Umaid’s delivery that kept too low. On the next ball, another short delivery of Umaid yielded the results as Dunk tried to pull it hard for a six but the edged the ball instead high in the air and Usama took the catch behind the wicket on onside. Dunk could score only 9 runs off 14 balls and joined Luke Ronchi as the top scorer of this season with 266 runs.

Muhammad Hafeez off to a quick start by hitting a boundary to Umaid on very first ball he faced. Qalandars reached the 100 mark in 13.3 overs.

Sohail next tried to speed up things and hit Usama a six but in very next over he became the second victim of Arshad when he missed a delivery that struck to his pad and the umpire raised his finger. Sohail reviewed the decision but he had to go as the review validated the on-filed umpire’s decision. Sohail played a beautiful 49-ball 68 runs innings and also hit tow maximums and eight boundaries.

Samit Patel was next to go when a hit a Chris Jordan’ delivery up in the air and Babar Azam took a very good running catch at deep midwicket as Qalandars batsmen continued to struggle to hit the ball. Hafeez tried to score the runs quickly but could not get ample support from the other side. David Wiese used 8 balls to score just 5 runs without any boundary. Hafeez remained unbeaten on 35 off 22 balls and hit a six and three fours in hiss innings.

For Karachi, right-arm medium fast bowler Arshad was a standout performer as he took two wickets for 15 runs in his three overs. Umaid also grabbed two wickets for 34 runs in his four overs. Jordan also bowled well in his four overs quota by finishing 1-24. Usama remained wicketless in his three overs and conceded 23 runs. Imad went for 21 runs in his two overs and Amir 30 runs in four overs and remained wicketless.