In their eighth outing of the PSL this season, the two-time champions Qalandars finally got a win

Associated Press07-Mar-2024Two-time defending champion Lahore Qalandars finally recorded their first win in the latest season of the PSL, beating Islamabad United by 17 runs on Wednesday.The Qalandars had lost six straight games before getting one point from a rain-abandoned match against Peshawar Zalmi last Saturday.Data-driven United, who prefers to chase, were bowled out for 145 with fast bowler Zaman Khan claiming 4 for 37 and Qalandars’ fielders making some smart catches in the outfield.Rassie van der Dussen (64) had earlier anchored Lahore to 162 for 7 with his fourth score of 50-plus this season before he was due to return home and will miss Qalandars’ last two league games.Jahandad Khan made a spectacular one-handed running catch at mid-off to dismiss Alex Hales for zero in the first over of Shaheen Shah Afridi (2-32) and the batting powerhouse of United collapsed to 73 for 7 against pace midway through their run chase.Faheem Ashraf hit an unbeaten 41 while Azam Khan (29) and Naseem Shah (27) also played little cameos to narrow down the defeat before Zaman wrapped up the game and had No. 11 Rumman Raees trapped leg before wicket with a yorker in the penultimate over.David Wiese, who sustained a groin injury in the first game, returned to the Qalandars fold and upped the ante in the death overs with a brisk unbeaten 24 off 11 balls as skipper Shadab Khan used seven bowlers and only off-spinner Salman Ali Agha was not among the wickets.United now have seven points from eight games while Qalandars have three with two games in hand.