Karachi Ravi up the engine against Lahore

Kings win by 27 runs to register their second triumph

SHARJAH:

Karachi Kings claimed a vital 27-run win over fellow strugglers Lahore Qalandars to stop a run of three defeats on the trot in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) on Friday in Sharjah, UAE.

Ravi Bopara continued his superb form with both bat and ball as he was once again the star of the show in both innings — producing easily the tournament’s standout performance so far.

Stand-in Lahore captain Dwayne Bravo won the toss and opted to bowl first on what seemed like yet another batting-friendly pitch.

Karachi skipper Shoaib Malik promoted himself up the order but it was his fellow Sialkot teammate Nauman Anwar that was the main aggressor early on.

Anwar, however, was helped with some incredibly poor fielding by the Lahore side, who dropped him a whopping four times. The first chance came off the very second ball of the innings, when he slapped an Ehsan Adil ball straight to Kevin Cooper, who dropped a dolly.

Anwar was also dropped twice by Umar Akmal, with the ball hitting the fielder’s hands before popping out and over the boundary for a maximum on both occasions.

He was eventually dismissed by Zohaib Khan on 35 off 25 balls, with Akmal finally managing to hold onto one. James Vince followed soon after, leaving Malik and Bopara to consolidate the innings a bit.

Malik’s dismissal on 27, with the score on 95-3, felt like it would bring about a late innings onslaught but wickets continued to fall at regular intervals for Karachi.

Bopara, however, seemed to playing in altogether different conditions as he smashed 71 off 43 balls, hitting three fours and four sixes. Imad Wasim (11 off 7) and Mushfiqur Rahim (10 off 7) played decent cameos to support Bopara’s assault and take Karachi to a daunting 178.

However, Karachi had lost just a day before to Peshawar Zalmi despite scoring 179 on the same pitch, and knew that they had to bowl better this time around.

And when the left-handed opening pair of Chris Gayle and Cameron Delport took Lahore to 90-0 after 10 overs, Karachi fans must surely have been fearing the worst.

But Karachi were given a look in when Delport danced down the track against leg-spinner Usama Mir, only to miss the ball and provide Rahim with the simplest of stumpings to take Lahore to 98-1.

Malik then brought on Bopara and the Englishman proved his worth by dismissing Gayle off the very first ball. Two balls later, Gayle’s compatriot Bravo was back in the pavilion as Lahore lost three wickets in four balls.

Bopara was not done though and dismissed Mohammad Rizwan and Hammad Azam off successive balls in the next over to leave Lahore teetering at the brink.

When he dismissed the in-form Akmal in his final over to take his final figures to 6-16 in four overs, he had single-handedly won Karachi their second match against Lahore.

Such has been Bopara’s form that after the match, he was not only the highest wicket-taker in the PSL, but also its highest run-scorer. “It’s nice to get the team over the line,” he said. “We have been coming very close in the last few matches. I asked the coaches to let me bat 40-50 balls so that I can do maximum damage and thankfully they listened.”

Bopara is understandably rearing to go for the upcoming matches. “The two points will really help us. Now we can move forward with a positive approach.”

Winning captain Malik was also keen to go from strength to strength. “There are still flaws in our side but we will try to cover them in the upcoming matches,” he said, before praising the crowd. “It was a full crowd and they kept screaming ‘Karachi, Karachi’, which really pumped us up.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th,  2016.

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