From winning the first match with 1 run to winning the final match with 1 run, Lahore Qalandars have got one beautiful journey that ended in a prestigious victory.
Winning yet another season of PSL and keeping the title to themselves for two consecutive years (PSL7 and PSL8) Lahore Qalandars have proven that anything is possible when you work hard. After a very long struggle of six seasons, Lahore qalandars had a rough time and they were always criticized because of their performance. Finally, in the 7th season, Lahore managed to win the trophy and the title and this time in PSL season 8, they conquered the series with all the ups and downs that kept their battle interesting throughout the season. The team is led by the Pakistani star bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi who is also the son-in-law of Shahid Khan Afridi and has been walking in the footsteps of his Father in law and making Pakistan proud as well. In the last season, the team beat Multan sultans by 42 runs however, in this season the battle was a tough one and they won by 1 run only.
There is a famous saying that says that batters win matches while bowlers win tournaments. This has been the motto of this team this year. They had a world-class bowling attack on board and it became their biggest strength throughout this season including big names like Shaheen Afridi himself, zaman khan, David Wiese, and Haris Rauf. All of them are absolute stunners with their bowling attack and act as a horrible dream for the opponent batters. Another star of the team was Rashid Khan, an Afghani bowler who is just 24 years old but took out all the big fishes throughout the season making the win victory easier for Lahore Qalandars. Another great strength that we have seen this season especially is the strong fan base of this team. They had an edge that most of their matches especially the final matches and the stadium used to be a full house on all of their matches so the immense support of the crowd was a game changer for the Lahore Qalandars and the team also took this support very seriously and made sure that they do not disappoint their fans. Their batting has also been a strength this year as they have names like Tahir Baig, Mohamad Haris, and Abdullah Shafique and surprisingly the skipper himself has been a great treat for the team especially the last performance that he showed in the final scoring 42 off 16 balls was a cherry on top for the team.
With all these strengths, there are still some shortcomings that they need to focus on for the next season. The batting order still lacks in some spots, especially the middle order which sometimes leaves the audience in misery as we have seen in the matches against Karachi where the batters had to leave the pitch one after another and it became a reason behind the failure of the team. There is also a lack of an experienced batter in the team like Muhammad Hafeez or any other person that is highly qualified and has the experience of playing cricket in big events on an international level for some time. Another problem that can become a weakness is the lack of a solid wicketkeeper in the team and this loophole can become upsetting news for the team if they do not strengthen it as some major wickets are taken behind the stumps hence, the man behind the stumps must be a solid experienced player who can take the control of the team while it's standing against the opponents.
The first match of Lahore Qalandars was against Multan Sultans which the LQ won by 1 run. The next match of LQ was with Karachi Kings and they had to face a fall in that match as KK won the match by 67 runs which was a big hit for LQ. Then LQ beat Quetta gladiators by 63 runs and they won by 40 runs against Peshawar zalmi. In the next match, they won by 110 runs against Islamabad united and by 17 runs against Quetta gladiators. There was a streak of winning the matches as LQ won another match against Multan however, Peshawar Zalmi won a match against LQ which broke their streak. Then they lost a match against Multan and another against Karachi which was the qualifier match. But then the revival of the team was seen as they won the eliminator match against Peshawar zalmi a day before the final and finally they won the final match of PSL season 8 by 1 run in a heart-throbbing battle against Multan sultan winning the title of PSL 8 with a beautiful journey and a beautiful closing of the tournament.
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