Twitter Reactions: Chris Lynn's 113* propels Lahore Qalandars into the semi-finals

Lahore Qalandars locked horns with an in-form Multan Sultans in a must-win game at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. It turned out to be a high scoring game in which Sohail Akhtar and Co. registered an emphatic win by 9 wickets on the back of Chris Lynn’s special ton. It also helped Qalandars for qualifying into knock-outs for the first time in PSL history.

Lahore Qalandars skipper Sohail Akhtar won the toss and elected to field first. The decision reasonably went into the corner of the fielding side as their bowlers managed to take early wickets. For Sultans, Moeen Ali and Zeeshan Ashraf came out to bat but the duo failed to score runs and gave away their wickets in cheap.

Shaheen Shah Afridi castled Ali on the sixth delivery of the innings. In the very next over, surprisingly, the ball was given to Mohammad Hafeez, who grabbed a big wicket of in-form Ashraf on the third delivery of his first over that left Sultans struggling.

After that, Shan Masood played a captain’s knock of 42 runs and stitched a 75-run partnership with Ravi Bopara (33 runs off 36 balls). The duo rescued their side from the early breakthroughs. Later on, Khushdil Shah, the left-handed batsman looked in full flow as he was smashing the opponent bowlers quite effortlessly. He played a blistering knock of 70 runs off 29 balls studded with five boundaries and six sixes.

In the end, Rohail Nazir played a small cameo of 24 runs off just 17 balls that helped Multan Sultans in posting a mammoth total of 186 runs for a loss of six wickets in stipulated 20 overs. The Qalandars’ bowlers failed to take advantage of a good start and looked miserable against Sultans batting line-up. Haris Rauf emerged as the costliest bowler in the match, who gave 50 runs in his three overs at an economy rate of 16.67.

Lynnsanity takes Lahore Qalandars one step closer to PSL trophy

Coming onto the chase, Qalandars openers Chris Lynn and Fakhar Zaman helped their side in getting off to a dream start. The duo looked unstoppable on the flat track and they took the charge against the bowlers from the beginning. In the second over of the innings, Fakhar gathered 15 runs off Ali Shafiq that gave momentum to the team. Later on, Chris Lynn also joined the party as he smacked boundary and a six on back to back deliveries off Bilawal Bhatti in the fourth over.

The Pakistani international registered his 2nd half-century in PSL 2020 that too in style with a six off Moeen Ali in the sixth over. In the end, Usman Qadir, the leg-spinner helped his side in getting the first breakthrough, who dismissed Fakhar Zaman. The left-hander stepped forward in an attempt to go for a big six off Qadir but he missed the ball and got stumped by Zeeshan Ashraf.

Until then, Lynn already got settled on the wicket and looked in no mood to spare the bowlers and he smacked them all across the park. The Aussie international took only 52 balls to score his first ton for Qalandars in a must-win game. He scored 14 boundaries and six sixes during his blistering knock.

After scoring ton, he looked in hurry and went for back to back sixes in the penultimate over that helped his side winning the crucial game by 9 wickets. Moreover, this win helped Qalandars in becoming the 3rd team to qualify for the semi-finals of PSL 2020.

Here is how Twitter reacted:

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