Afridi, Mirza, Kusal Perera power Qalandars into PSL final

Kusal Perera thumped 61 off 35, Mohammad Naeem struck 50 off 25, and despite having qualified fourth into the playoffs, Lahore Qalandars leapt into the final, with their second big win in as many nights.

With Abdullah Shafique, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and Asif Ali also making strong contributions, Qalandars amassed 202 for 8. On a Gaddafi track that was decent for batting, but had a little zip in it for the quicks, this was way too much for Islamabad United, who nosedived to 107 all out, without ever looking like they could threaten the target.

Opening bowlers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Salman Mirza - both left-armers - wrecked United's innings, reducing them to 33 for 4 by the end of the powerplay.

United had come second in the league, but have crashed their way through the playoffs. Qalandars will go into the final against table-toppers Quetta Gladiators. But having now won their last three matches, Qalandars also have some serious form heading into the title match.

There was never really a slow portion of Qalandars' innings - their boundary hitting found plentiful expression in every phase. But where often the late middle overs can be a canvas for consolidating, two left-handed Sri Lankan batters plundered 48 runs off the 28 balls they faced together.

Despite being bottom-hand dominant batters, both Kusal and Rajapaksa prospered on the off side, United's bowlers tempting them to drag balls wide of off to the leg side, only for these batters to nail their off-side boundary options. The extra cover region got a particular peppering, but the point and long-off boundaries were popular with this pair too. Rajapaksa made 22 off 13, before being bowled by Salman Irshad in the 17th over.

Kusal continued batting until the 20th, hitting two successive sixes off Naseem Shah - the first over fine leg, the second carved over deep third - the second of those taking him past fifty.

Naeem's might have been the most impressive of Qalandars' innings, however. Although he'd faced only one ball by the time Fakhar Zaman top-edged one to the keeper at the end of the second over, Naeem reveled in the limelight when he got it, reeling off three outstanding drives between mid-off and cover to get his innings moving, before hitting three fours and a six off Naseem in the fifth over.

Although one of Naeem's sixes was a pull shot over square leg off Naseem, his favoured areas were down the ground and through cover, United's seamers going too full too often, perhaps looking for swing. By the end of the powerplay, he had 34 off 14 balls. He didn't really stop attacking when the field went back - he was stumped trying to launch Imad Wasim into the stratosphere at the end of the ninth over.

In a high-pressure match, a target of 203 always seemed imposing. But before they had struck a boundary, United had lost two wickets. Afridi sent Muhammad Shahzad's middle stump on a jaunt with a vicious inswinger to end the first over, before Mirza had Sahibzada Farhan chopping one back on to his stumps two balls later.

The boundaries never really got going. The wickets kept falling, though. Mirza had Rassie van der Dussen caught by a diving Kusal in the fourth over, before Wasim holed out off the last ball of the powerplay. When the field went back, United needed 12.14 an over, with six wickets in hand.

The only United batter to get any sort of batting fluency was Salman who hit 33 off 26 balls, often hitting through the off side as well. But Bangladesh legspinner Rishad Hossain had him caught at long-on in the 10th over, and if United's chances were not dead already, this was the wicket that felt like the final, decisive swing.

In the end, Qalandars' quicks went through the formalities of blasting out the United lower order. Afridi returned with spectacular figures of 3 for 3 off 3.1 overs, as United were bowled out in the 16th over.