David Wiese stars as Lahore Qalandars clinch final berth in dramatic fashion

Wiese, the veteran allrounder, smashed 27 runs off the final over of Lahore's innings with the bat and then took the winning wicket in the last over of Islamabad's reply

Lahore: Lahore Qalandars 168-7, Islamabad United 162 - Lahore Qalandars win by six runs

Lahore Qalandars will face Multan Sultans in the final of the Pakistan Super League after David Wiese inspired his side to a remarkable victory over Islamabad United.

The veteran allrounder smashed 27 runs off the final over of Lahore's innings with the bat and then took the winning wicket in the last over of Islamabad's reply.

Shadab Khan's team needed just eight runs off six balls but after Mohammad Wasim Jr turned down singles off the first two deliveries, he was run out off the third as he came back for a second run, leaving Waqas Maqsood needing seven off three. He almost managed it but fell a matter of feet short, instead locating the hands of Abdullah Shafique on the midwicket boundary, sending the Qalandars fielders and supporters into raptures.

It was a fittingly mad end to a game that twisted in all kinds of directions: Lahore lost openers Fakhar Zaman and Phil Salt to Liam Dawson within the first 15 balls of the match, before Shafique and Kamran Ghulam steadied the ship with a 73-run partnership, with Shafique reaching fifty.

But Ghulam struggled to increase his tempo and Mohammad Hafeez made 28 at exactly a run per ball, making Wiese's intervention all the more important. The former South Africa international, who now represents Namibia, took Maqsood for three sixes and a four in an over that changed the context of the game and handed the momentum to Shaheen Shah Afridi's men.

Shortly afterwards, when Afridi dismissed both Paul Stirling and Will Jacks in the third over, it seemed as though Islamabad's race might be run, especially after Shadab fell to Zaman Khan and Dawson was run out by Shafique to leave the chasing side 46 for 4 inside the powerplay.

^{Shaheen Shah Afridi celebrates one of two wickets in Lahore's six-run win (Arif Ali/AFP via Getty Images)}

But Alex Hales and Azam Khan counterattacked, adding 79 in eight overs before Khan – not for the first time in this competition – was run out, with Hales falling nine balls later.

Asif Ali's reputation as an arch-finisher meant that Lahore could not assume they were home and hosed, and that thought was pushed even further away when Afridi produced a rare poor over, overstepping when he thought he'd had Hassan Ali caught at long on, handing him a free hit and then straying legside with the final ball of his spell, allowing four risk-free runs to be clipped behind square.

Hassan Ali's reprieve was only brief, however; he chipped to deep midwicket before Asif Ali skewed the last ball of the penultimate over to Harry Brook at long-on.

Islamabad were still marginal favourites and would have won had the teams left the field when the rain started to fall, three runs ahead of the DLS par score. But after two dot-balls, the panic set in and Qalandars clinched their place in the final amid scenes of bedlam at the Gaddafi Stadium.