After losing their first match of the third season in Pakistan Super League (PSL), the Gladiators from Quetta roared back for a thumping nine-wicket win in the late match on Saturday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

A good work by the Galdiators bowlers did not go waste when Shane Watson played a characteristically aggressive knock to the wind out of Qalandars. The former Australian all rounder thrived on dropped catches to take the Lahore spinners to cleaners. First, he targeted Sunil Narine, who had hit him for 24. He sent the West Indian tweaker past roped twice and two times over it to take 21 in an over. Then shifted his attention to leg spinner Yasir Shah, hitting two towering sixes for 14 runs in an over bowled by the leggie.

Before Narine exacted his revenge by rattling the timber to send Watson back, the Aussie had knocked off for 66. The Galdiators opener had put the race beyond the Lahore team by hitting five boundaries and five sixes in his 42-ball swashbuckling knock.

While Watson was sending the white ball around the stadium, Asad Shafiq, known more his cricketing excellence in whites, kept the other end going with almost a run-a-ball. He even seemed inspired by the big hitting Australian as he clobbered three sixes in his 36-ball unbeaten 38.

The openers ensured that the Gladiators went past the target of 120 with six overs to spare.

Earlier, the Quetta Gladiators decision to put Lahore Qalandars in after winning the toss seemed to be wrong when the Lahore Qalandars opener Sunil Narine (28, 10 balls, four 4s, two 6s) threatened to rip Gladiators apart with his bold hitting. And, at the other end Brendon McCullum (30, 18 balls, three 4s, two 6s) also kept up the moment going.

Unfortunately, both the Qalandars openers were snapped up before the power play six overs ended. Even with Fakhar Zaman, who could have been a big threat to the Quetta team, lasted only three balls before falling to Jofra Archer caught him double mind. The left-handed Pakistani star ended up giving a tame return catch to the West Indian fast bowler.

Archer took three wickets but left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz choked the Lahore batsmen with his nagging accuracy to concede only four runs in his four-over spell that included a wicket- maiden. He bowled three overs in his spell, which started from last over of the power play and then bowled a maiden-wicket in the 13th over of the innings.

Nawaz in the process also created the record of the most economic spell (4-1-4-2) in the PSl. Shahid Afridi (4-1-7-5) and Yasir Shah (4-0-7-4) were the joint record holder for the most economic spell earlier.

Brief scores: Lahore Qalandars 119/9 in 20 overs(McCullum 30, Narine 28, Delport 15, Sohail Akhtar 20 not out, Archer 3-23, Nawaz 2-4).

Quetta Gladiators 120/1 in 14 overs(Asad Shafiq 38 not out, Shane Watson 66, Umar Amin 13 not out).

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