The fourth match of the ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League (GSL) took place under blue skies and bright sunshine at Providence, East Bank Demerara with the Lahore Qalandars taking on the Hampshire Hawks, runaway eventual winners by four runs.
Carlos Braithwaite won the coin toss and decided to have first use with the bat, but his side were put under immediate pressure by the English outfit.
Mirza Baig was cleaned up in the second over by the wily left-arm spin of Danny Briggs, while opening partner Adam Rossington hung around to provide some ballast.
Qalandars couldn’t break the shackles though. When Rossington fell for 30 off 29 deliveries, the Pakistani side were struggling at 37-3 off eight overs.
It was the story of their innings: Hampshire bowling tight lines and denying Qalandars opportunities to pick up easy runs or find the fence with any regularity.
Some much-needed lower order hitting from Player of the Match, Luke Wells (35* off 24), and from Muhammad Akhlaq (23* off 12) proved crucial though. Akhlaq smote three sixes off James Fuller’s second over with some lusty blows down the ground and over midwicket.
Hampshire struggled with the bat in response, spluttering to 50 off the first ten overs, and leaving themselves with a demanding run rate for the rest of the game. Asif Afridi’s left-arm spin blocked the scoring; just 16 runs came off his set of four overs and the Hawks joined up a series of dots with the bat to see their required run rate go into double figures.
With three overs to go, the Hawks needed 36 from 18 deliveries. Ashraf pulled off a fantastic catch in diving forward low to the turf to get rid of the dangerous Howell, and then Liam Dawson committed the cardinal blunder of not running his bat in when attempting a quick single a couple of balls later, Carlos Brathwaite and Shamsi combining to run him out at the non-striker’s end.
