He bowled three splendid overs in the powerplay – his second and third sandwiched between Ubaid Shah’s maiden – as Kings mustered 18 for 2 in the first five overs. Saad Baig smashed Rauf, who leaked 45 runs in 3.3 overs, for two boundaries in the last powerplay over that gave his side some respite.
The wicketkeeper-batter started off the seventh by dispatching Sikandar Raza’s half-tracker, which turned out to be a no-ball, to the mid-wicket for a boundary. His dismissal off Mustafizur Rahman in the next over put the chokehold back on Kings as only 19 runs were scored from the next four overs.
Moeen Ali, whose all-round brilliance had delivered Kings a come-from-behind win over Quetta Gladiators on Friday, had pierced the off side gap on the third ball as that over added 18 to the Kings total and brought the required run rate down to seven-and-a-half from nine an over.
Their crucial 43-run partnership ended as Afridi removed Waseem and then Ali in the 15th over which added another twist in the run chase. But Khushdil Shah and Azam Khan held their nerve to take Kings through to the last over with their 32-run partnership before Abbas sealed the contest.
Despite the dismissals of Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Naeem in the first and fourth over, Qalandars ended the powerplay on a decent 42 for 2 as Abdullah Shafique (33 off 24) held his end. His repair work with Parvez Hossain Emon was undone when he holed out to long-on and Emon got trapped in front in the space of three balls.
But Qalandars seemed on course to a competitive total as Raza and Haseebullah Khan built a solid partnership worth 43. Haseebullah welcomed Abbas with a four and a six in a 15-run over (12th of the innings). The wickets of Raza and Shaheen in the 15th and 16th overs sparked a collapse as Qalandars lost their last five wickets for 20 runs.
