In the third over of the match, with Shaheen having already claimed a wicket in his first over, Babar faced his first ball from the pacer and took a single. Two balls later, Babar executed a beautiful drive down the ground to a full delivery, hitting it with perfect timing to earn a four.
“That’s a beautiful shot, that’s so trademark Babar Azam,” commented Bazid Khan on air. Shaheen struck back on the very next delivery, bowling a fantastic delivery that landed on middle stump and straightened to go through the gap between Babar’s bat and pad, crashing into the stumps.
In his classic celebration, Shaheen looked up to the sky with both arms outstretched while Babar walked back to the dugout. After Lahore Qalandars chose to bat first, they hit the most sixes in any team innings in the PSL, setting a target of 242. Fakhar Zaman (96 off 45), Abdullah Shafique (75 off 41) and Sam Billings (47 off 23) were the main contributors to the Qalandars’ score.
Despite a quick recovery by Tom Kohler-Cadmore (55 off 23), who smashed five sixes, Peshawar Zalmi struggled to chase the target and ended up 40 runs short, with Saim Ayub also scoring a fifty and Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Rovman Powell adding some valuable runs towards the end.
