The Pakistan Super League season 10 final was a nail-biter. Quetta Gladiators faced off against Lahore Qalandars on May 25. Quetta batted first, scoring a massive 201 runs. The championship match went down to the wire, with Lahore emerging victorious with one ball to spare. They won by six wickets, securing their third PSL title under the leadership of captain Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Kusal Perera was the star of the final, earning the Player of the Match award. He scored an unbeaten 62 runs off 31 balls, helping his team reach the target of 202. Earlier, Muhammad Naim and Abdullah Shafique had given Lahore a solid start with their partnership.
On the bowling front, Quetta’s Fahim Ashraf proved to be the most expensive, conceding 49 runs in 3.5 overs. Khurram Shahzad also had a high economy rate, giving away 46 runs at 11.50, while Mohammad Amir bowled four overs for 41 runs.
In an interesting aside, it was revealed that Lahore Qalandars captain Shaheen Shah Afridi has a family connection to a terrorist who was killed by the Border Security Force (BSF) in 2003. The terrorist, Shakib, was a cousin of Shaheen’s father-in-law, former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi. Shakib was identified as a battalion commander of the Harkat-ul-Ansar militant group and was killed in an encounter in Anantnag. Shahid Afridi had downplayed the connection at the time, stating that the Pathan community in Pakistan is large and he had lost touch with many of his cousins.