Shaheen Afridi began it, Rashid Khan did his own thing mostly with ball in the centre, and then returned with the bats as Lahore Qalandars scored a four-wheeled victory versus Peshawar Zalmi which was nervous in pieces, but still spectacular.

Afridi had began by hammering his yorkers, combining them with certain short ones that were well-directed, and not giving batsmen space to deal with. Some of them may have felt that freedom to breathe was already at a premium, trying to manage the exact aggression of the left-arm rapidly.

In holding Zalmi at 140 for 6, the Afridi-Khan pair had played the character part, but the Qalandars seemed unsteady in their pursuit. When Khan walked in, with his team 109 for 6, he was seeing a hat-trick ball, needing 32 of 26 balls. To convert a jumpy chase into a canter, he coolly struck 27 not out of 15 balls.

During the last edition, Qalandars, the finalists, started on a wonderful note with Afridi having Imam-ul-Haq captured behind the first ball. That set the standard for a dingy powerplay which for Zalmi yielded 36 for 3.

In general, Saqib Mahmood was destructive in his quick second spell while Wahab Riaz reversed Ben Dunk, although there were a few pressure-releasing deliveries in between the excellence. In his final over, Mahmood also sent back Samit Patel and David Wiese, leaving a tricky 32 to do it for the Qalandars with Mohammad Hafeez the only known batsman.

An over later, however, Riaz started with a no-ball for elevation that was hit to the boundaries and tossed the ball around inside a 14-run over that meant the final comeback of Zalmi in the match was achieved.