Kusal Perera, Sikandar Raza take Lahore Qalandars to title with record chase

Lahore Qalandars 204 for 4 (Perera 62*, Naeem 46, Abrar 1-27) beat Quetta Gladiators 201 for 9 (Nawaz 76, Fernando 29, Afridi 3-24) by six wickets

There were n-number of performances that might have deserved to win this final, but in the end it was Kusal Perera and Sikandar Raza that earned the honour of being swarmed wildly by their team-mates into the midnight Lahore sky, as Lahore Qalandars edged Quetta Gladiators in an electrifying PSL final.

The tl;dr is that Qalandars needed 47 off the final three overs to complete not only the highest successful chase in a PSL final, but in any T20 final. If that wasn't a dramatic enough script, the winning runs were struck by Raza, a man who had landed in Pakistan just ten minutes before the toss.

With eight needed off three balls, he polished the game off with a ball to spare with a six and a four, but that he was even in a position to score those runs was down to Perera, whose unbeaten 62 off 31 kept Qalandars in the chase when most logic dictated otherwise.

Of the performances trailing in their wake were blistering 40s from Mohammad Naeem and Mohammed Shafique, while Hasan Nawaz's 76 off 43 and Faheem Ashraf's 28 off eight might have won the game on another day.

But this was a game in which holding your nerve was key, and Qalandars did that at the most crucial moments.

Raza's dreamy day

"Bowled 25 overs the day before yesterday, batted for 20-odd overs yesterday, had dinner in Birmingham, breakfast in Dubai, drove to Abu Dhabi for lunch, took a flight and had dinner in Pakistan."

No one other than Raza himself could have summed up his lead-up to this PSL final quite so vividly, a journey which ended with him scoring the winning runs.

But even if he had been understandably a little off-colour with the ball, he was around at the game's key moments. Whether it was to manufacture the opening breakthrough of the game, hold on to a skier at long-off to see off the dangerous Nawaz, or to dispatch Mohammad Amir for a four and a six off the first two deliveries he faced when the required rate was pushing beyond 15.

Faheem steals the momentum

Chasing in a final is never easy. In fact, in the PSL, the highest ever successful chase had been 175, and that came in the very first edition. In that context, Nawaz's 76 off 43 was pivotal; not only did he anchor the innings, allowing those around him to chip in with helpful cameos, he did so at an impressive rate.

So when a pair of sixes from Dinesh Chandimal at the tail end of the 17th over took Gladiators up to 170 for 4, and with Nawaz still at the crease, it looked like Qalandars were about to be set a historic target.

What was not expected at this point was the next two overs going for just eight runs, and Gladiators losing four wickets in the process - including that of Nawaz. Suddenly, from eyeing a total of at least 200, even 190 seemed a stretch.

Enter Faheem. It took the most ill-advised of singles to get him on strike - Khurram Shahzad was barely in the screen when the throw from midwicket missed the stumps - but once he got there, he could hardly have made more of it. Six, four, six, six went the next four balls as Faheem catapulted Gladiators beyond 200, before holing out off the last ball.

Naeem gives yet another fast start

The secret sauce to Qalandars' season has been the carefree, joyous nature of their play, somehow managing to eschew game state and more often than not string together the exact performance needed. On Sunday, that approach was put to the ultimate test.

But if there was ever any doubt about Qalandars feeling the nerves, that was quickly put to rest, ironically with a helping hand from Faheem. Having struck 23 off that final over, Faheem proceeded to give away each one of those 23 runs in the third over as Naeem's hat-trick of sixes jump-started Qalandars' chase.

That 23-run over would prove crucial in keeping Qalandars within touching distance as Amir at the other end was at his miserly best, giving away just 12 runs off his first two overs. It meant Qalandars were restricted to 56 runs in the powerplay.

Perera's star turn trumps Amir

Gladiators edged Qalandars by a single run in the powerplay, but it was in the middle overs that they really stretched their advantage - 98 to 87. It meant that for Qalandars to win, they would have to strike heavily at the death, a tough task, particularly with Amir still having two overs.

Amir has been destructive and economical all at once this PSL, and it was no different in the final. After going wicketless in his opening two overs, he returned at the death to get rid of Bhanuka Rajapaksa, just as Qalandars were building up a head of steam.

It was, therefore, inevitable that chasing such a challenging target, Qalandars would at some point need to take on Amir. And with the required run rate creeping beyond 15, they did just that.

The first blows of counterattack came from a likely jet-lagged Raza, as he thumped a four and a six off the first two balls faced to end Amir's third. Then in the penultimate over of the game, it was Perera's turn, and he too obliged with a four-six combo.

Perera might have been parachuted in for just the tail-end of this tournament, but in the four games he played, he certainly made the most of his opportunities. He saved his best for last, taking on Gladiators' other two most economical options in Khurram Shahzad and Abrar Ahmed before finally turning his attention on Amir.