The Buffalo Sabres have placed defenseman Zach Bogosian on unconditional waivers with the intention of terminating his contract, the team announced Friday.

Bogosian had been suspended last week for failing to report to the minors. The suspension was announced two days after the 12-year NHL veteran cleared waivers and was assigned to Buffalo's AHL affiliate in Rochster, N.Y.

The move comes before the NHL's trade deadline on Feb. 24, and about three months after Bogosian requested to be traded. He missed the first 22 games while recovering from his second hip operation in three years. He was a healthy scratch in seven of eight games before being placed on waivers.

Bogosian has a goal and four assists in 19 games this season, and 53 goals and 141 assists in 636 career games. He was acquired by Buffalo in February 2015 in a multiplayer trade with the Winnipeg Jets.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Columbus Blue Jackets leading goal scorer Oliver Bjorkstrand is expected to miss the rest of the regular season after he suffered a sprained and fractured ankle during Thursday's loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen announced Friday.

Bjorkstrand is expected to miss eight to 10 weeks with the injury, according to Kekalainen. That would rule him out into the playoffs if Columbus, which currently holds the top wild-card seed in the Eastern Conference, makes the postseason.

After posting a goal and assist Thursday, Bjorkstrand slid hard into the back boards at the end of regulation and limped off the ice. He did not play in overtime as the Blue Jackets lost 4-3.

A release from the team said no decision had been made on surgery.

This is another major injury this month for the Blue Jackets, who have already lost Seth Jones for eight to 10 weeks with a fractured ankle and Cam Atkinson for two to three weeks with a sprained ankle. Columbus leads the NHL in man-games lost to injury this season.

Bjorkstrand, 24, had 21 goals and 15 assists with 12 penalty minutes in 49 games this season. Along with being the team's top goal scorer, Bjorkstrand also has the most winning goals (five) and multipoint games (11).

He had missed the majority of January with a rib/cartilage contusion and oblique strain.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Boston Bruins acquired Ondrej Kase from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for veteran David Backes, a 2020 first-round pick and prospect Axel Anderson. Kase fills a role as two-way winger for Boston, while Backes will hope to re-establish himself as an NHL presence with a new team. How did each GM do in the swap?

The deal:

Bruins get: F Ondrej Kase

Ducks get: F David Backes, D Axel Andersson, 2020 first-round pick

Boston Bruins: A-

Borussia Dortmund fans have been handed a two-year away ban at Hoffenheim, the German Football Associated (DFB) announced on Friday.

Sources told ESPN that the club's fans would receive a ban for chants against Hoffenheim's chief financial backer Dietmar Hopp.

"After the continued abuse of Dietmar Hopp, the withdrawal of the suspended sentence was inevitable as a consequence of the previous judgement from Nov. 2 2018," DFB Sports Tribunal chairman Hans E. Lorenz said in statement.

"Today's judgement is no deviation from the practice in recent years of punishing unsporting behaviour from supporters with monetary fines. The banning of fans remains an option in serious, exceptional cases, in which a monetary fine would be insufficient."

In addition, BVB must compensate the Hoffenheim fans for the reduced income caused by the exclusion of spectators in the away area.

The club has also been fined €50,000 and the club can use up to €17,000 for security-related and violence-preventive measures, which the DFB would have to show evidence of by Sept. 30 2020.

Dortmund supporters initially protested against Hoffenheim and Hopp as they believed the club's arrival in the top flight potentially undermined the Bundesliga's football culture by working around the 50+1 rule, which stipulates that more than 50% of a club must be owned by its members.

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Dortmund were given a €50,000 fine plus a suspended three-game away fans ban for matches at Hoffenheim two years ago, after supporters abused the home club's owner Hopp by displaying offensive banners, including one showing a portrait of the 79-year-old in cross hairs with "Hasta La Vista Hopp!" written underneath.

In May 2019, Dortmund were fined by a Sinsheim district court after supporters verbally abused Hoffenheim owner Hopp a year earlier. Dortmund have appealed against the judgement, but have yet to receive a date for their appeal hearing at the regional court.

When both sides met again at Hoffenheim in late December 2019, Dortmund supporters once again displayed several offensive banners and abused Hopp.

Dortmund travel to Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga on Saturday while Hoffenheim face an away match against Borussia Monchengladbach.

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson is a doubt for the Premier League title run-in and Champions League round of 16 second leg after coach Jurgen Klopp confirmed he is out for three weeks because of injury.

England midfielder Henderson was substituted 80 minutes into Liverpool's 1-0 Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday after dropping to the turf in discomfort.

"Hendo, it could have been worse," Klopp told a news conference on Friday. "It was a hamstring. You have different hamstring injuries now in the Premier League.

"[Harry] Kane, he will be out for three months or so, which isn't cool. But we were still lucky.

"Hendo is exceptionally important, not just football-wise, [but] it's a position where we can react, so we will react.

"Hopefully nothing else happens [to our midfielders] -- we still have options. There's a chance for all of them. But Hendo wouldn't have played every game between now and the end of season."

The European champions' 1-0 defeat to Atletico came in the first leg of the round of 16, with the return fixture at Anfield scheduled for March 11, close to Henderson's expected return date.

Liverpool have several domestic fixtures before then, including an FA Cup fifth-round tie against Chelsea.

Klopp's side, who next play on Monday against West Ham, have a 22-point lead over second-placed Manchester City in the Premier League.

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has said the club's board back his decision to drop goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga to the bench.

Kepa became the world's most goalkeeper when he moved to Chelsea for £71.5 million last season but he has struggled recently and been replaced by Willy Cabellero for last three matches.

Chelsea have conceded five goals in that time but Lampard said the board have no issues with his decision.

"I am absolutely together with the club and the board," he told a news conference. "We all want the best. I am paid to make decisions.

"It has been a decision to make on form with the goalkeeping situation. Recently it's just changed, but that's nothing final.

"All Kepa needs to do is train and show a great attitude, as I demand from all the players. And things can obviously change."

Lampard also confirmed that N'Golo Kante will miss the next three weeks after he sustained a muscle injury in the 2-0 loss against Manchester United.

The Chelsea boss said he has no return date for Christian Pulisic but Tammy Abraham and Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be back for the Tottenham game on Saturday.

The Blues have only won one of their last five Premier League matches and Lampard has challenged his players to get back to form.

"They have to rise to that challenge," he added. "If you want to play for Chelsea you have to."

"I like a tap in," Martin Braithwaite said, and then he started laughing.

It was October, cold and misty outside at Leganes' training ground, where huge letters painted across the wall facing the pitch demand "train, compete, fight but above all, enjoy and dream." The Danish striker had been asked what kind of chances he likes best. Well, that was obvious, it was suggested: two yards out, no-one in the way, an open net. "That's an easy goal," Braithwaite said, laughing again.

He didn't get many of those at Leganes -- only three clubs have had fewer touches in the area -- but he might get a few more now. If, that is, he gets the chance to play.

On Thursday, Braithwaite became FC Barcelona's 24th signing in five years, an emergency solution to the injury suffered by Ousmane Dembele (and Luis Suarez before him). He cost €18m from Leganes -- left without their strikers and without much hope either -- and signed a four-and-a-half-year deal which few expect him to see out, probably not even him. In the morning, the money for his buyout clause was deposited at the league; in the afternoon he was presented at the Camp Nou.

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Not that much was made of it. Sure, there were the kick-ups, smiles, a new shirt (no.19), and a medical, marked by the obligatory picture: shirt off, suckers on, thumbs up. There was a trip to the opening of a new club shop, too. But there were no cheering fans and not much attention on his football. When it came to the press conference, in the midst of an institutional crisis at the club, most of the questions were not for him. "Everything but Braithwaite," noted AS. "Anonymous," they called him, "practically see-through" or, as Marca put it, "eclipsed."

Barcelona's new signing only fielded two questions. "I hope to score a lot of goals," he said. That night, Abel Ruiz and Carles Perez, the men Barcelona had moved out during the winter window, actually did, for SC Braga and AS Roma respectively in the Europa League. And yet what little Braithwaite said also helped to explain part of the reason he is there, why he took this on and why they turned to him. Why it might work, too.

"It was a surprise, but at the same time not so much because I have always had the ambition to play at this level," he said. Whether that is his level -- and many doubt it is -- only time will tell.

But he doesn't even have that much time: unable to play in the Champions League, Braithwaite has just 14 games until the end of the season and possibly the end of his Barcelona career. Though he signed a four-and-a-half year contract, this is seen as a short-term fix that will probably end in the summer, when he could find himself stuck. "He's here for what's left of the league," Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu said, not exactly offering up a ringing endorsement. If he doesn't play much, it could have an impact on Euro 2020, too.

Braithwaite knows that. He is not stupid -- quite the opposite, which is precisely the point -- and on one level the answer to the question of why join Barcelona is simple: because it's Barcelona. Who wouldn't? It's often said that the train only passes once. A lot of the time, it's not true; this time, it is. Catch it while you can and see if you can stay on board. You'll always be able to say you played there. Or, and this is the risk, didn't. But then, what if? What if it works? And even if it doesn't, what's the worst that can happen? Barcelona never looks bad on anyone's list of accomplishments.

As for the club -- and leaving aside the debate about the rules and the ethics of this, plus the damage done to Leganes who, incidentally, said they didn't blame Barca and described Braithwaite as a "gentleman" -- they argue that there are reasons too. The Dane cost almost three times what Angel would have done: Getafe had agreed a deal for €6m, plus €2m in variables. But he is younger (28 against 32), he will play at the Euros, on display, and they believe that he will have a sell-on value, opening up a way to recuperate some of the money invested, which they haven't really got to waste. That they would really make back a significant chunk of the outlay is questionable, though.

But, believe it or not, there is football too. And while Braithwaite has played for Bordeaux, Toulouse, Middlesbrough and Leganes, a long way from the orbit in which Barcelona's targets are found, while he has not been an obvious candidate for far better clubs than that, his arrival does address some of their needs -- given the context and the market in which they had to operate. He has scored eight goals this season, six in the league. It may not be mountains, but at a team like Leganes, it is something. It is only two fewer goals than Antoine Griezmann, for example. It is also a third of all those Leganes scored; between them, the remaining players have eight league goals. This isn't a place of endless opportunity.

It's not all about what Braithwaite might lack; the Dane also brings some things that Barcelona do not have. "He fits our needs," Barcelona manager Quique Setien said, and those needs go beyond goals. They lack a forward who is a reference point but can also play from wide; the coaching staff see Braithwaite as a player who can help press, is aggressive, quick, good technically and finishes well. Someone who is strong in the air -- defensively, that helps too -- and can compliment what they have. He's able to combine but also go beyond the defence, making those breaking runs that stretch defences.

This isn't just about them watching him, either; he's been watching them. And this is the element that might make Braithwaite most useful, most likely to apply the qualities he has. It's probably what makes him most interesting too, something that will particularly please Setien: above all, he is bright, a player who wants to learn with a coach who likes to teach.

"I am a strong player, fast, physical..." Braithwaite said on Thursday at his unveiling. But it was what came next that that mattered more: "... my main characteristic is that I like to study the play." He added: "Barcelona play the best football in the world: I have spent the last two days studying the way they play and I will keep doing it."

He meant it, too. And not just because of where he is. His is an ambitious mind but also an analytical one -- adaptable, too. When he was playing at Bordeaux, Braithwaite went to the manager's office to ask Gus Poyet for help. He was making the right runs, he said, or so he thought, but the balls weren't reaching him and he wasn't able to contribute. Somehow, it just wasn't working. The midfielders, Poyet recognised, were not the kind to release quickly; the timing was not as well coordinated as it should be. Together, they sat and watched videos, planned the runs, re-designed them. Just as important, Poyet told him, was to build the personal relationship with the passers too, so he did that too.

He scored the next game.

Which goes back to that October day in Leganes, when Braithwaite was talking to The Spanish Football Podcast, explaining how the move had come about and why it was that within a fortnight he had scored against Madrid and Barcelona -- the level of team, he said, that "I try to measure myself against; I really want to be playing for one of those teams one day." It was, he said, "crazy, but it's not coincidence."

"I signed in January but [Leganes] had already showed interest in July," he explained. "I didn't know a lot about them and I kept an eye on them in the first six months in Middlesbrough. [When] they approached me again, I really started to study the team, looked at how they played and started to see how I would fit into the team and I thought I could have an impact on the way they play."

He did. Immediately.

"I see myself as an intelligent person. I try to be," he continued. "I try to look at my own game and see what I can improve, but it was really looking at the team: what kind of chances do they create? The people who are supposed to feed the strikers: what kind of passes are they giving? What kind of crosses are coming in? I tried to get down to the small details and think: how can I exploit the box? Where can I see the possibilities to get scoring chances? I looked at [Guido] Carrillo and [Youssef] En-Nesyri. Carrillo wins a lot of duels in the box and the ball falls down around him. [There are] a lot of chances you can get by staying near him."

That's why asking what kind of chances he likes was not such a silly question. It was one he had asked himself; it's one he is asking himself now, because the chances he likes are the chances that will come at Barcelona. The issue is recognising them, being ready for them, helping to make them happen.

"It can be a cross: we play a lot of crosses, we're a physical team," he said then, about Leganes. "I try to study the people who cross the ball, what kind of cross. Rather than them adapt to me, I try to adapt to their crosses. When you play like a team like Leganes, you have to be intelligent because we're not a team that plays the best possession football and creates a lot of chances in an open game, so you need to have a vision of where the ball is going to go down..."

Barcelona is different, he knows. And that, of course, may be no bad thing. "We have concepts that we have to explain and [Braithwaite] has to understand," Setien said. "We really do have a lot of faith in him: we've followed him for a while. He has qualities that will help us a lot. We know that he is not only a good footballer, but his head works very well. He can help us; he can give us a lot."

Speed, strength, intelligence, and the occasional tap-in, too.

The 2020 Major League Soccer season is just around the corner, which naturally means a host of new players in the league. But who cares about those guys? We want to talk about what really matters: the coaches.

In the offseason, the Chicago Fire, Houston Dynamo, Inter Miami and New York City FC got new managers -- Raphael Wicky, Tab Ramos, Diego Alonso and Ronny Deila, respectively. There's also some dude named Thierry Henry in Montreal, whom we'll delve into in the coming weeks, and Nashville SC's Gary Smith, a known quantity having managed the Colorado Rapids for years.

We tracked down players who've played for these guys to get a sense of what MLS fans -- and their teams -- can expect from the new guys on the touchline.

Diego Alonso | Inter Miami

What to expect: The first manager of MLS' latest glamour franchise, Alonso's task at Inter Miami may be the toughest he's tackled in some time.

Inter Miami's signing was the biggest name of the four, Alonso having managed Pachuca and Monterrey to CONCACAF Champions League victories and having won Liga MX's 2016 Clausura with Los Tuzos. At his introductory news conference in January, he noted that he's Uruguayan and that Uruguayans are known for fighting and clawing for everything they want. Omar Gonzalez, who played for Alonso at Pachuca, saw this firsthand.

"That's the type of coach he is. High energy, in your face. If he wants more for you, he's going to tell you and he's going to challenge you," Gonzalez said. "He has a passion about him, how he approaches each day. He expects the most out of you each day, and he pushes you with this intensity. It's all because he wants you to be the best you can be. I believe that I am a better player having been coached by him."

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Kekuta Manneh, who spent 2018 at Pachuca with Alonso, agreed with Gonzalez. "He's very vocal at training and on game days, trying to fire up people and the team," he said. "He's there with the team. He's one of the players who wants to be playing on the field. His passion for the game is something that stands out for me."

Alonso's teams play like Alonso the man: intensely. "He likes to press," Manneh said. "He likes to play off of winning the ball up high and then counter the counter. He loves that. He makes his game plan as he is as a person: aggressive. He likes to attack as quickly as possible and he likes to press the ball as soon as his team loses it. He motivates people to do that on the team." On Gonzalez's 2016 squad, Pachuca boasted Hirving Lozano on the left wing and Jonathan Urretaviscaya on the right, two speedy midfielders. The goal was to get them the ball quickly and break upfield in as few passes as possible, but then maintain possession and enter the box through combination play if the counter wasn't available.

"He will get Miami fired up for the season and players will want to play for him," Manneh said. "He's that type of coach."

Of the four coaches, Alonso has the highest expectations. He's the most decorated new coach in the league (at least as a manager; Henry takes that honor as a player), and Inter Miami is this season's glamour franchise. It's a good roster for an expansion club with high-potential DPs Matias Pellegrini and Rodolfo Pizarro and MLS veterans including Juan Agudelo, A.J. DeLaGarza, Alvas Powell, Luis Robles, Ben Sweat and Wil Trapp. But it's still an expansion franchise, and growing pains will come. Miami could be quite good. It also might fall short of the playoffs if Alonso can't hold things together. This season will be his toughest test in a while.

Ronny Deila | New York City FC

What to expect: Deila's even-keeled nature should serve him well in a league with as much parity as MLS and in a club in as much disarray as NYCFC.

The new New York City FC manager enters a bit of an uncertain situation, replacing Domenec Torrent, who left at the end of the 2019 season. The Norwegian previously managed Brodd, Stromsgodset and Celtic before moving to Valerenga in January 2017. The Oslo-based club finished eighth, sixth and 10th in the Eliteserien during his three seasons in charge.

"He prefers possession-based attacking football," said Samuel Adekugbe, a left-back and Canadian national-teamer who started his career as Vancouver Whitecaps homegrown player before joining Valerenga in 2018. "An idealist. He loves winning but even more so when the team plays beautiful football."

Delia tries to maintain a positive attitude in the locker room and during practice. "His training sessions are intense and very tactical," Adekugbe said. "He's all about improving the way the team plays with and without the ball. Repetition of certain movements that he wants to see. He's very diligent in his approach to the game. Recognizing areas of improvement, showing the team through video footage and working on it during training sessions."

When things go wrong, the manager becomes more process orientated, searching for and analyzing patterns in areas of weakness. These qualities should serve him well in the up-and-down world of MLS.

The good news for Deila is that his new club boasts plenty of attacking talent in Valentin Castellanos, Heber, Maxi Moralez and Alexandru Mitrița. The bad is that NYCFC is a chaotic place. Witness the strange and awkward departure of Torrent as well as director of football operations Claudio Reyna, and also the troubles of City Football Group flagship Manchester City. Not a recipe for success, especially for a manager who didn't exactly shine in his previous job. There's enough ability and home-field advantage to get NYCFC to the playoffs, but it could be a tough year in the Bronx.

Tab Ramos | Houston Dynamo

What to expect: Houston is short on star power, but Ramos has the tools to build the foundations of success for years to come.

The longtime U.S. men's national team player who served as the program's U20 head coach from 2011 to 2019 before joining the Dynamo is one of the most experienced American coaches around. Between his 82 international appearances and his stints as U20 assistant, U20 manager and USMNT assistant, he's spent 22 years involved in the U.S. Soccer setup.

For Philadelphia Union defender Matthew Real, who played for Ramos at the 2019 U20 World Cup, that been-there, done-that quality is a key to Ramos' coaching success. "He's been places in the game for sure," he said. "He brings the same things he brought to the field as a player to his players. It helps when you have someone who's been through these experiences. You can't really go much higher.

"He's not afraid to tell you if you're not playing well," Real said. "In games as well. He has no problem taking you off the field. But he does have patience. He's not just going to scream at you. He's going to make sure you understand how he's trying to play. If you can execute, then you're his guy. He doesn't care who you are. You can be the best player or the worst player and he'll treat everyone the same. He'll bench the best player if he's not performing."

As someone who spent a decade molding youth national-teamers, Ramos understands the qualities of each of his players and helps them build out those traits. For Real, that was his leadership. "He always trusted me as a player, trusted my ability, but he saw me as someone who could be a potential leader for the group," he said. "He brought that voice out in me. I knew I had it, but I didn't know I had it like I showed."

Ramos comes in as the most familiar with MLS and its players, having coached some of them as they came through the U.S. youth system. The version of the once-proud Dynamo that he inherits lacks a big-name star, while transitioning from the sporadic nature of a national team coach to the day-to-day rigor of a club manager will be an adjustment. Ramos loves working with younger players and helping them develop, so perhaps 2020 will be a building year in Houston. That said, if he -- and assistant Pablo Mastroeni, known during his playing days for his tenaciousness -- can get the Dynamo battling for each other, they could push for a playoff spot in the tough Western Conference.

Raphael Wicky | Chicago Fire

What to expect: It's all change in Chicago this season, and if Wicky doesn't get the best out of this reshaped roster, the man in charge of the dugout could change once more this season.

After four years and a single postseason appearance, the Fire finally pulled the plug on Veljko Paunovic, which led them to Wicky, last seen overseeing the U.S. U17 squad to a last-place finish in Group D at the 2019 World Cup. Despite the poor showing, members of that team enjoyed the experience of being coached by the former Swiss international.

"He connects with his players on a personal level," FC Dallas defender Nico Carrera said. "There are coaches who don't care about their players as people, as tools that are used to win. Wicky sees his players as people. He cares about their emotional side. He cares about their mental side. He checks up on you. He talks to you. He makes sure all is fine, not only in soccer but in your life, with your family."

Ricardo Pepi, Carrera's teammate at FCD and on the U17 team, saw those qualities as well. "I thought he was going to be very hard on people and expect a lot from a lot of people, but he was actually kind of laid-back," he said. "The biggest thing with him is that he has a lot of patience for the players. He'd give you opportunities to fix what you needed to fix. But when it comes to you messing up too much, he'll tell you what you did wrong and what you need to fix."

In terms of tactics, Wicky's teams play a possession-based game, mixing control and attacking soccer, while also spending more time than usual prepping for what specific opponents do well and how to exploit their weaknesses. Sessions consisted mostly of on-field work, with only a little bit of video prep to show examples.

The biggest thing, however, is that Wicky is a players' coach, the type to keep in contact with his former players and stay abreast of their lives on and off the field. "When he got the Chicago Fire job, I reached out to him, he reached out to me," Carrera said. "We talked a little bit about how I was doing, how my family was doing, how he was doing.

"Of course, I would love to beat him."

The Fire were better than anyone gave them credit for last season -- advanced metrics loved them -- but the Windy City club lost big names including Bastian Schweinsteiger, Nemanja Nikolic, Nicolás Gaitan, Aleksandar Katai and Dax McCarty in the offseason. This was intentional, a rebuild to go along with the rebrand, but it does leave a lot of question marks for Wicky. Additionally, the new coach's U17 team looked to lack a bit of heart and fight at the U17 World Cup. Perhaps that means nothing. Perhaps it doesn't. MLS is a long, hard season, and if Wicky can't keep his charges motivated, his seat could get hot quickly.

Karachi Kings 201 for 4 (Azam 78, Wasim 50, Hasan 2-52) beat Peshawar Zalmi 191 for 7 (Livingstone 54*, Kamran 43, Asif 2-23) by 10 runs

How the game played out

In the hunt for what would have been just the fourth successful 200-plus chase in PSL history, Darren Sammy and Liam Livingstone nearly got Peshawar Zalmi over the line. But excellent death bowling from Umaid Asif in the final over ensured that Karachi Kings held on for a thrilling 10-run win at the National Stadium on Friday afternoon.

The Kings' victory was set up by a brilliant 97-run partnership between Babar Azam and Imad Wasim. They got together after Cameron Delport fell in the ninth over to a sharply turning googly from Mohammad Mohsin and supercharged the Kings innings. It took an excellent piece of hustle from Tom Banton to run Azam out and break the stand in the 18th over. But by then, the home side had 170 on the board and Iftikhar Ahmed blasted a four and two sixes off the only three balls he faced to put an even more emphatic stamp on proceedings.

Chris Jordan struck a pair of early blows in the chase, getting Banton lbw on review and yorking Haider Ali three balls later. But Kamran Akmal led a revival with 43 off 26 balls before handing the keys over to Livingstone in the 10th over. Zalmi already needed to score two runs a ball at that stage, but Livingstone and Sammy somehow kept up with the rate.

Then, needing 16 to win off the final over, with Sammy on strike, Zalmi's boundaries dried up as Asif kept the batsmen off balance with an array of slower balls and cutters bowled into the pitch.

Turning point

Asif produced a phenomenal effort in the final over, culminating in a sensational return catch to dismiss Sammy.

After a pair of singles and a two brought the equation down to 12 off 3 balls, he banged one in short and outside off. The batsman skied an attempted pull over short midwicket. Asif stopped in his follow-through, changed direction, circled back 20 yards to his right, then lunged forward to complete a very difficult catch.

On strike for the penultimate ball, needing a pair of sixes to win, Livingstone flubbed a knee-high full toss tamely into the covers for a single to effectively seal victory for the Kings.

Star of the day

Azam played a special knock to lead the Kings' recovery after they had been sent in to bat. He was especially fluent through the off side, finding a majority of his seven fours and two sixes there, including perhaps the shot of the day, a blistering six over extra cover off Hasan Ali in the 15th over.

When Wasim started to accelerate alongside him, Azam was happy to rotate the strike and would almost certainly have carried on to reach three-figures if not for Banton's excellence.

The big miss

By umpire Richard Illingworth. Banton has been a rampaging menace on the T20 circuit over the last year. But Jordan had him foxed with a clever offcutter two balls into the fourth over which the batsman swung over the top of to be trapped deep in his crease and in front of middle stump. Jordan flew into an appeal and was borderline apoplectic when Illingworth turned it down. Wasim wasted little time in calling for a review and DRS showed the delivery taking out middle stump three quarters of the way up, allowing the decision to be corrected.

Where the teams stand

Kings moved level with Quetta Gladiators at the top of the table on two points after two games. Zalmi joined Islamabad United on zero points, alongside Multan Sultans and Lahore Qalandars who are set to play their opening games later on Friday.

Multan Sultans 142 for 5 (Masood 38, Shaheen Afridi 1-18) beat Lahore Qalandars 138 for 8 (Lynn 39, Tahir 2-21) by five wickets

How the game played out

New year, new PSL, new venue. Same old Lahore Qalandars. An unbalanced squad, curiously playing without a specialist spinner, began their fifth PSL campaign with a crushing five-wicket defeat at the hands of Multan Sultans. Shan Masood's side had the composure to see off an early storm from Qalandars' big hitting openers, fully cognizant that once Fakhar Zaman and Chris Lynn were removed, there was little meat on the bare bones the rest of the batting side comprised.

From 59 for 1 in 5.2 overs, Qalandars tumbled top 138 for 8 in their allotted 20, well below par in front of a Lahore crowd that was watching their home franchise for the very first time. They soon realised they hadn't been missing much when the bowlers failed to trouble Multan too much in the run chase, Shan Masood's composed 29-ball 38 anchoring his side towards the perfect in an edition where Multan brim with optimism.

Qalandars' ineptitude should not detract from the glimpses of brilliance that Multan showed in this game. The experienced spin duo of Imran Tahir and Shahid Afridi had combined figures of 8-0-45-2, while Moeen Ali chipped in with a couple of wickets in addition to a brief cameo. Sohail Tanvir and Mohammad Irfan were effective at the start and the death, while two wickets from an ever-improving Mohammad Ilyas make him one of the bowlers to watch as this PSL season takes shape.

Multan were less convincing in the chase than they might have liked, with unforced errors giving Qalandars a peek back into the game on a couple of occasions. Moeen's run out buoyed Qalandars, who were looking to Shaheen Afridi to provide them with an explosive start. His perfect yorker to castle James Vince was the ball of the day, but Rilee Rossouw did perfectly what Multan had bought him to do: guide the chase steadily and without dram, and even though Zeeshan Ashraf fell thanks to another run-out, the asking rate kept dipping. There was even time to dust off the old classic: a few lusty blows from Shahid Afridi who knocked off the winning runs.

Turning point

With Fakhar and Lynn at the top of an order where there wasn't much big-hitting to follow, how the opening partnership pans out will be pivotal to Qalandars' chances. Today, it looked like that necessary gamble was paying off when the pair found their range early, with Sohail Tanvir spanked for 18 in his second over, and the 50-partnership brought up in the fifth.

And on came Moeen for the last powerplay over, Lynn poised, as if at the trapdoor like a dragon waiting to breathe fire. Moeen got singed first ball when a full toss was dispatched over long-on. But the next pull, he pulled his line back and took the pace off it. Lynn stepped back in his crease and tried to loft it over mid-off. His timing failed him, and Shan Masood took the catch. Two balls later, Zaman danced down the wicket and heaved Moeen into the onside. The ball nearly went up into orbit, but when it came down, it was still within the confines of the boundary, and Khushdil Shah at cow corner made no mistake with the catch. Multan were into Qalandars' middle order, and in truth, there wasn't much there to worry them.

Multan's two 40-year olds

Dane Vilas smashed a couple of boundaries off Shahid Afridi, but that aside, there was little looseness from him, and, bowling alongside Tahir, he ended his spell at just a shade over a run a ball.

Tahir, if it's possible, was even more effective. He was thrust in during the business end of the powerplay when Lynn was giving the Lahore crowd a taste of his immense power-hitting ability and found himself roughed up in that first over. But thereon in, he was tight, squeezing Qalandars for runs and forcing them into low-percentage shots. Mohammad Hafeez fell to him this way, before Dane Vilas, who looked Qalandars' best hope of a rearguard, dragging a flatter one onto his stumps. If anything, those figures of 4-0-21-2 were a little too harsh on him.

Lahore's beleaguered captain

It may sound like clutching at straws, but Qalandars may take some encouragement from their skipper Sohail Akhtar holding the innings together as wickets fell in clumps during the middle overs, serving as useful foil to Dane Vilas and Mohammad Hafeez, none of whom kicked on in the way Qalandarsneeded them to. It was up to Akhtar himself to provide the big finish, and he did indeed tonk Tanvir for a pair of sixes in the final over to give Qalandars something to bowl at.

Where the teams stand

Multan's convincing win takes them top of the table on net run rate, while Qalandars find themselves at the bottom.