Former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull was recently in the headlines for lashing out at Babar Azam as he put his personal milestones ahead of the team’s goal. And now, he has blasted Babar’s opening partner in the national team, Mohammad Rizwan for his slow strike rate in the qualifier match in Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Rizwan is leading Multan Sultans in the tournament and they clashed against Lahore Qalandars in the qualifier at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday, March 15. Opting to bat first Rizwan and Usman Khan started very slowly. Usman departed in the 8th over after scoring 28 runs from 28 balls while Rizwan continued to play but couldn’t switch the gears and eventually got out in the 14th over for just 33 runs and Doull took no time to rip apart his innings.
“33 off 29 and he’s out in the 14th over, It’s just not acceptable. He didn’t hit a boundary in 10 overs. The third over was his last boundary. You’ve got to take more risks than that.” Doull said during the PSL commentary.
Brilliant bowling performance by Multan Sultans
However, former West Indies captain Kieron Pollard showed he still has a couple of years left at this level with a seamless switching of gears. The three sixes he hit to Shaheen Shah Afridi were the highlight as Pollard scored 57 runs off just 34 deliveries which included a four and 6 maximums. Due to this, the Sultans achieved a fighting total of 160 runs after losing 5 wickets in 20 overs. Haris Rauf took the most wickets for Lahore as he dismissed 3 batters.
In the second innings, Sheldon Cottrell got the ball to swing and took two wickets early on and Anwar Ali got through Fakhar Zaman's defenses to leave Lahore reeling. And after that, it was just a procession. The only interesting bits of action in the later half was the verbal jousts between Ihsanullah and Rauf. Lahore defeated the Sultans by a huge margin of 84 runs to qualify for the PSL final for the 3rd time.
Here’s how fans reacted:
He is absoultly right. DONR try to make fun of him.
— abdulrehman ch (@abdulrehman4182) March 16, 2023
He speaking factssss
— Goutham T Girish (@GouthamTg) March 16, 2023
Ab to bahar k log me bol rhaay haaai mam lo bhaaai runs k liye hi khela jaraha .....
— سید محمد شاہ زیب (@sheezy89) March 15, 2023
Haha balancing thẻ equation now.
— Adnan Hassan (@itxAdnann) March 15, 2023
Pitch b to dkho simon
— Umar Chodhary (@jzx_drift) March 16, 2023
Selfish player Rizwan
— Himanshu🇮🇳 (@proudindian7197) March 15, 2023
Mujhe lag Raha he k
— (Tweets°by°me) (@MrAhmadQureshi0) March 15, 2023
Simon doull Apne paoon pr chl kr wapis Jana NH jata awaam NH chodegi😂
Strategy matters dude - take a chill pill, they outclassed LQ
— Malik Irfan (@urfimalik) March 15, 2023