Lahore Qalandars have won the Pakistan Super League 2023 (PSL) title for the second time in a row. In the final match, Shaheen Afridi’s captaincy Lahore defeated Mohammad Rizwan’s team Multan Sultans by 1 run. Multan needed 4 runs to win the match that went till the last ball. Khushdil Shah was able to score only 2 runs on the ball of Zaman Khan. Lahore became the first team to win the tournament back to back. Similar excitement was witnessed in the finals of IPL 2017 and 2019 as well. Both times Mumbai Indians became champions by 1 run wins .
Batting first after winning the toss, Lahore Qalandars scored 200 runs for 6 wickets. Mirza Bag (30) gave the team a great start. But Fakhar Zaman batted slowly. Bag got out after hitting 5 fours and 1 six in 18 balls. After his dismissal, Abdullah Shafiq took over. Lahore got another blow in the 12th over in the form of Fakhar (39). After this, Sam Billings (9), Ehsan Bhatti (0) and Sikandar Raza (1) were dismissed cheaply.
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Captain Shaheen Afridi promoted himself and walked out ahead of David Wiese and Rashid Khan. Shaheen hit an unbeaten 44 off just 15 balls with the help of 5 sixes and 2 fours. Shafiq scored 65 off 40 balls. With the help of these innings, Lahore scored 200 runs for 6 wickets. The team scored 85 runs in the last 5 overs in perfect onslaught . Usman Mir took maximum 3 wickets for Multan.
Usman Khan and Mohammad Rizwan gave Multan a start. When Usman was dismissed in the fourth over, the team’s score was 41 runs. Riley Russouw, who landed at number three, also showed his explosive game. He scored 52 runs in 32 balls. Rashid Khan bowled him. Rizwan got out after scoring 34 runs. An inning of 19 runs came off the bat of Kieron Pollard. In the last three overs, Multan needed 41 runs to win. Shaheen Afridi took the wickets of Tim David, Anwar Ali and Usman Mir in this over.
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Abbas Afridi and Khushdil Shah hit 22 runs in the 19th over to bring the team closer to the target. The team needed 13 runs in the last over. Only 5 runs were scored in 4 balls. Khushdil Shah hit a four on the 5th ball. But the last ball Zaman bowled a yorker and Khushdil could not play the big shot. The ball goes to deep mid wicket. The batsmen ran for two runs but Khushdil was run out while trying to get the third run. In this way, Lahore won the match by one run and won the trophy.