LAHORE: Lahore Qalandars player Faqar Zaman has been charged with violation of Law 41.3 of the Playing Conditions which prohibits any act of altering the condition of the ball for a Level 3 offense under Section 2.14 of the Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel.
Faqar denied the allegation during a disciplinary hearing conducted by match referee Roshan Mahanama. A further hearing is scheduled to take place within the next 48 hours, after which the arbitrator will deliver his verdict.
The incident took place during the second innings of the match.
Controversy emerged when the field umpires inspected the ball and ruled that its condition had been altered just before the final over of the Kings’ innings. As a result, a penalty of five runs was imposed on the fielding side.
A penalty reduced the target to nine instead of 14 in the final over, swinging the momentum in Kings’ favour.
Abbas Afridi hit back-to-back boundaries off the second and third balls to guide the 2020 champions to a thrilling four-wicket victory.
Qalandars captain Shaheen Shah Afridi expressed disappointment at the decision but admitted he was unaware of the specific allegation at the time.
“I don’t know about it (ball-tampering), we will discuss. Five-run penalty… But we can’t say anything. We will see,” Shaheen said in the post-match briefing.
Reflecting on the overall performance, Shaheen said his side’s batting effort was respectable, pointing out the opposition’s struggles while chasing a modest target.
“It was a good game. We wanted to fight till the last ball and the team tried. It was the same in both the batting. I feel our batting was good, otherwise KK would have chased it down in 15 overs,” asserted the left-arm pacer.
Earlier, Shaheen’s decision to bat first proved costly as the Callanders posted 128-9 in their 20 overs.
Abdullah Shafiq top-scored with 33 runs off 24 balls including 4 fours and a six, while Hasibullah Khan scored 28 runs off 30 balls with a four and a six.
Chasing 129 runs on a challenging surface, Kings reached the target with the loss of 6 wickets with three balls to spare.
UAE player Muhammad Wasim scored 38 runs off 37 balls with 3 fours and a six, while Saad Baig and Moeen Ali added 19 and 18 runs respectively.