Afridi knocks over Gladiators in a lopsided contest
Baig and Raza blaze with the bat to extend Gladiators' disastrous campaign
Baig and Raza blaze with the bat to extend Gladiators' disastrous campaign
Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: Shashwat Kumar
10:55pm Right. That will be that from us for tonight. We hope you enjoyed our coverage as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Until next time, this is me (Shashwat) signing off on behalf of M Venkat Raghav and everyone else at ESPNcricinfo! Goodbye, goodnight and take care!
Shaheen Shah Afridi is the Player of the Match and also the winning captain: (On the batters scoring runs) The idea was to score 170-180 runs. The way Fakhar and Tahir started, we thought we could get to a bigger score. Tahir was using the pace well and was batting brilliantly against world-class bowlers. Hope was superb too and he is leaving tomorrow, and our best wishes are with him. I have 7-8 bowlers and that makes my job easier. I hope that even I have as much pace as Haris does (smiles). (On his first spell) I always strive to give my team an early breakthrough. It was swinging so I thought of bowling a little fuller.
Sarfaraz Ahmed, Quetta Gladiators captain: We conceded a few more runs than what we wanted. We did not start well in our batting powerplay either. The wicket played better today and the batters were able to play their strokes. Roy is a top player and whenever he plays more balls, he can score. The player that we were depending on (Hasaranga) did not get an NOC and that puts a lot of pressure on the team. We will talk to the boys and hopefully we can come back in the games ahead.
David Wiese: It is a team that has backed me from the start. As long as they keep having me here, I will keep coming back. With the short side, anything with pace on was an easy shot. The wicket got a bit slower towards the end. We let ourselves down against Karachi and we wanted to make it right. Sometimes it is good to have a wake-up call at the start of the tournament. For a batting side to get skittled out and score nearly 200 today was a phenomenal effort.
10:38pm Well, that was a game that the Gladiators might want to forget in a hurry. The toss was perhaps the only thing that went their way, and once they inserted the Qalandars into bat, it looked like one-way traffic. During their batting innings, there was a brief period when Roy was firing on all cylinders and it felt like he would take the game away. Rashid, though, had other ideas. The rest of the batters just could not get going and by the time the game entered its final stretch, the result seemed a foregone conclusion.
The Gladiators, having lost three out of four, have lots to ponder. They still seem unsure of their batting order, and seem too dependent on Hasnain and Naseem to provide penetration with the ball. The Qalandars, on the other hand, have an excellent bowling unit glittered with match-winners. Shaheen, in particular, was breathing fire tonight and set up the game with a stunning new-ball spell, which, of course, included a wicket in the first over. The Qalandars' batters also did the job today and as long as they keep putting runs on the board, you feel they will always be in the game.
The last ball of the previous over indeed kissed the outside of off stump
Baig and Raza blaze with the bat to extend Gladiators' disastrous campaign