Qalandars vs Gladiators, 18th Match at Lahore, PSL 2023, Mar 02 2023 - Ball by Ball Commentary

That's it after a remarkable day in Lahore. See you guys soon, thanks for joining us!

"Congraulations to the team," beams Shaheen. "Thanks to the crowd. I wanted to go out and play for a few overs, which is why I went out to bat early. Sometimes you lose early wickets, but as a team you need to support each other. Which Sikandar Raza and Rashid Khan proved very well. We were aiming to bowl length and not to do too much different."

Sikandar Raza is the Player of the Match, of course. He's also won a whole host of other awards. (Non-alcoholic) drinks had better be on him. "I didn't think batting slowly and posting 110 was going to win us the game," he says. "I wanted to give our bowlers something to bowl to. And when we put up 148 I knew we'd done a good job." Praises Rashid, too.

"I think we run well, we understand each other well. Because we're both pretty innovative with our shotmaking as well we know we're going to find enough boundaries. I think there was variable bounce, and there was a lot of natural variation. Credit to the bowlers to restrict Quetta on that track. Incredible effort."

Lots of you have made the entirely reasonable point that it might be time to move on from Sarfaraz. Looking at him, it almost feels like it'd be a relief for him, too. He looks particularly burdened at the moment.

"We bowled well in the first ten, and then letting them score 150 was pretty poor," a disappointed Sarfaraz says. "The bowling was poor at that stage, and then after the Powerplay, we stalled between overs 5-10. We scored only 10 runs in those five overs and allowed them back into it."

Fiaz Laghari: "I have made a habit of guessing Man of the Match correctly and today my guess is Sikandar Raza :) let's see if I'm correct again " I keep telling everyone water is wet and keep being proved right. Not sure why people don't appreciate my wisdom either

It's a demoralising defeat that heavily implicates a stagnating structure that's arguably past its sell-by date.

But tonight, it's all about Lahore, whose bowling at the deathw as simply in a league Sarfaraz and the lower order couldn't match.

Duncan : "One wonders whether Raza would have ever played in the PSL if fates were different and he stayed in Pakistan. " Not if he became a fighter pilot he wouldn't