A Fitting End to PSL

THAT the Pakistan Super League featured gripping action and an exhilarating finish goes without saying. Lahore Qalandars, the glitzy T20 competition’s first repeat winners, created history by winning in a match that came down to the last run. Their captain, Shaheen Shah Afridi, was brilliant with bat and ball before outperforming Khushdil Shah on the game’s closing delivery. Shaheen and the Qalandars successfully defended their crown by defeating the Sultans in the championship game for the second year in a row.

Najam Sethi, the interim head of the PCB management committee, declared his intention to improve and expand the PSL at the start of the season. He declared that the PSL had eclipsed the Indian Premier League in terms of digital ratings as the season came to an end. A record-breaking season was the first one, which was contested at four different national venues. It had the highest rate of sixes and fours. Pakistan’s all-format captain Babar Azam performed admirably with the bat, coming second only to Sultans captain Mohammad Rizwan in terms of runs scored, but fell short in his attempt to win his first PSL championship as captain.

Once again, the PSL has revealed potential cricketing stars, especially player of the tournament Ihsanullah, who emerged as the second-highest wicket-taker behind his Sultans co-player Abbas Afridi, and Zalmi batter Saim Ayub. More hearteningly, despite the commotion in Lahore, the PSL went on, which greatly helped divert people’s attention from the dirty Pakistani politics; it also served to underscore the fact that the country does have the capacity to host sporting spectacles like the PSL against all odds.