Lahore Qalandars skipper Shaheen Shah Afridi was on fire with the ball, picking up a five-wicket haul in a clash against Babar Azam’s Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League 2023. The match featured more than 440 runs with the bat but it was Afridi’s 5/40 in 4 overs which set up the Qalandars’ 40-run win over Zalmi on Sunday (February 26) night.


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Babar’s side were chasing a massive 242 runs to win thanks to Fakhar Zaman’s brilliant 96 off 45 balls and Abdullah Shafique’s 75 along with Sam Billings’ unbeaten 47. Afridi struck in the very first over, breaking Zalmi opener Mohammad Haris’s bat with his first ball of the match, off the very next ball he uprooted the middle stump of Haris for a duck.


Watch Shaheen Shah Afridi break Mohammad Haris bat here…



In his second over, Afridi was up against Pakistan captain Babar in the much-hyped ‘Babar vs Afridi’ clash of PSL 2023. The contest didn’t last long either as Babar was also cleaned-up by Afridi, effectively ending Zalmi’s hopes of chasing the massive Qalandars total.


Watch Babar Azam get bowled by Shaheen Shah Afridi here…



A few days back, Mohammad Haris had triggered a flood on the social media posts with his comment about young Pakistan pacer Ihsanullah, who has been firing at over 150kmph in the PSL this season. “Jis tarah ki meri ball lag rahi thi, to shukar hai Ihsanullah bach gaya. Vo to uski khushkismati hai,” (The way I was striking the ball, he should consider himself very lucky that he escaped!),” Haris had said.


A days before Qalandars vs Zalmi match, Haris said he ran into Afridi. “He was just saying ‘Shukr hai Ihsanullah Bach gaya, let’s see what happens tomorrow between us!” Haris told Paktv website.


The Zalmi side only managed to cross 200-run total in Lahore thanks to half-centuries by Saim Ayub (51, 34b, 7x4, 2x6) and Tom Kohler-Cadmore (55, 23b, 3x4, 5x6). But Qalandars skipper returned late in the innings to pick up the wickets of James Neesham, Wahab Riaz and Saad Masood to complete his five-wicket haul in the match.


Earlier, Qalandars opener Fakhar Zaman was unlucky to miss out on a well-deserved century, dismissed for 96 off 45 balls with 10 sixes and 3 fours by West Indian all-rounder Rovman Powell off the final ball of 18th over.