A formidable opening partnership of 151 runs between Babar Azam (74*) and Sharjeel Khan (69*) made a mockery of the mediocre target set by Lahore Qalandars as Karachi Kings chased it down with 17 balls to spare without losing a wicket.

Earlier in the evening, Karachi skipper Imad Wasim won the toss and elected to field. Sohail Akhtar (49) and Fakhar Zaman (17) got Lahore off to a flyer but they lost the crucial wicket of Zaman on the final ball of the powerplay. Chris Lynn replaced him at the crease and he couldn't display the power-hitting that he is renowned for.

Karachi controlled the middle phase of the innings as they kept taking wickets at regular intervals and Lahore couldn't inject any momentum into their innings. Their skipper, Sohail Akhtar (68) was looking in supreme touch but he lacked support from the other end as none of the form players - Ben Dunk or Samit Patel could get going. Hafeez looked in decent form but he couldn't capitalize in the final overs and Karachi could only muster 19 runs in the final three overs and they ended up with a below-par score of 150.

Sharjeel Khan began his innings cautiously as he only scored one run in the first over off Shaheen Afridi. But soon he changed his gear and got into the power-hitting mode. Babar Azam also matched him shot for shot and put forth an immaculate display of batsmanship. They made full use of the powerplay and scored 52 runs in it. Lahore bowlers looked clueless at times as Sharjeel and Babar kept belting them around. Lahore were hoping for a wicket to get back into the match but the due didn't let that happen and they powered Karachi home with 17 balls to spare. With this win, Karachi has jumped to the second spot in the points table whereas Lahore remained at the fourth spot.

Brief Scores: Lahore Qalandars 150/5 in 20 overs (Sohail Akhtar 68, Mohammed Hafeez 35*; Arshad Iqbal 2-15, Umaid Asif 2-34) lost to Karachi Kings 151 for no loss in 17.1 overs (Sharjeel Khan 74*, Babar Azam 69*) by 10 wickets