Lahore Qalandars have defeated Quetta Gladiators by 63 runs in the 10th match of the eighth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) at the National Bank Cricket Arena in Karachi.

Lahore Qalandars staged a strong comeback, after losing to Karachi Kings on Sunday night, by first posting a towering 198 for six and then restricting Quetta Gladiators, who lost their second match in as many nights, to 135 for eight.

With their batting clicking after a forgettable outing two nights ago, there was another silver lining for Lahore Qalandars as player-of-the match Shaheen Afridi, who finished with three for 22, found rhythm and bowled sizzling yorkers in his opening spell. He delivered a scorcher to Abdul Wahid Bangalzai on the third ball of the first over to trap him right in front. The ball swung back into the young right-hander and landed on his foot. He decided to refer the on-field decision of out to the third umpire only to be turned down.

That Zaman Khan was equally impressive from the other end helped Lahore Qalandars. Both fast bowlers had their fair share of LBW shouts as the pair of Jason Roy and Martin Guptill looked perplexed. Roy unleashed himself in the fifth over to smoke Haris Rauf for three sixes – which went down as the most expensive of the innings – and then played a gorgeous lofted drive over deep long off for a six off Zaman in the next over.

Quetta Gladiators might have started to believe, but Rashid Khan, playing his first HBL PSL 8 match, bowled a magical delivery to uproot Roy’s off-stump. At this juncture, Quetta Gladiators were 68 for three at 9.1 overs mark. As the scoreboard pressure mounted, Quetta Gladiators batters lost the plot and fell in quick succession as they slipped to 101 for six from 93 for three.

David Wiese removed Guptill, Mohammad Hafeez (25 off 22) and Iftikhar Ahmed (six off 10) and finished with there for 23. Rashid Khan further cemented his reputation of being a wily customer in T20 cricket and finished with brilliant figures of one for 17 from four overs.

Lahore Qalandars batters played little but brisk innings to knit together a healthy total against Qauetta Gladiators. Lahore Qalandars reached 198-6 in the allotted 20 overs.

After putting into bat first, Qalandars openers off to a brisk start as Mirza Tahir Baig and Fakhar Zaman played some aggressive cricket as Qalandars reached 50 runs in just 4.5 overs. Zaman was first to fall when he was caught behind by Sarfraz Ahmad on the bowling of Odean Smith. He scored 22 runs off 14 balls hitting a six and three boundaries in his innings.

Baig soon followed him when he miscued a shot of the bowling of M Nawaz and was caught at mid-on by Martin Guptill. He scored 31 off 15 balls hitting two sixes and four boundaries.

Qalandars scored the highest score in the first power play this season as they ended the six overs at 65-2.

Shai Hope and Kamran Ghulam continued to build Qalandars inning aggressively as well as they reached the 100 runs mark in just 9.2 overs. Qalandars were 100-2 at the end of the half of the innings.

Kamran was stumped out on the bowling of Qais Ahmad. He scored 21 runs off 17 balls hitting two boundaries.

Smith got the wicket of Hope when he skied a delivery only to be caught by Iftikhar Ahmad at deep mid wicket. He was the top scorer for Qalandars with 47 off 32 balls hitting five fours and a six.

Hussain Talat’s short cameo came to an end by Qais when he was caught by Guptill at the boundary. He scored 26 runs off 13 balls hitting two boundaries and a six.

David Wiese scored only one run when was bowled by Muhammad Hasnain as quick wickets deprived Qalandars to cross the 200 mark.

Sikandar Raza and Rashid Khan added 28 more runs for the unbeaten sixth wicket in 2.4 overs. Raza remained unbeaten on 32 off 16 balls with the help of two sixes and a boundary and Rashid remained unbeaten on 11 off 10 balls.

Mohammad Hasnain, who came into this match after bowling splendidly for his three for 12 against Peshawar Zalmi yesterday, had the best economy from his side (eight) in his figures of one for 32. Qais Ahmed and Odean Smith took two wickets each, but gave away 36 and 41, respectively.

Lahore Qalandars have won two of three matches and this was Quetta Gladiators third loss in four.