KARACHI: On Saturday night in Karachi, the formula of winning the toss, choosing to bowl and winning the match worked for the tenth time out of ten this season, as Peshawar Zalmi won their third game in a row by bowling Islamabad United out for 118 and chasing the target down with 17 balls to spare.
United’s deep batting line-up had worked perfectly in their first two games, as they successfully chased targets of 151 and 197, but they struggled against Zalmi’s quicks Wahab Riaz and Saqib Mahmood and only briefly threatened to post a worthwhile total on a decent batting pitch. They raced to 38 for 1 after 4.2 overs thanks to a bright start from Alex Hales, and recovered from three quick wickets to reach 81 for 4 after 10, but they lost wickets too regularly and were bowled out at the start of the 18th over.
Zalmi started horribly in their run chase, losing both openers inside the first two overs and struggling to score against the new ball, but Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Shoaib Malik steadied them before Haider Ali’s cameo – including an 89-metre straight six off his first ball – put the game to bed.
STAR OF THE DAY:
Riaz had returned figures of 2 for 105 across his eight overs in Zalmi’s previous two games, with head coach Daren Sammy suggesting that he had been struggling with the burden of the captaincy. But things clicked for him on Saturday night, as he struck the first blow before returning to clean up the lower-middle order.
With Lewis Gregory managing an injury, Paul Stirling was brought in for his first game in the PSL less than 24 hours after being named as Ireland’s men’s player of the decade 2011-2020. But his stay lasted only two balls, as he was foxed by extra bounce from a length and chopped Riaz onto his own stumps.
He returned when Iftikhar Ahmed and Asif Ali were looking to take the innings deep, and removed both in the space of six balls: Iftikhar holed out to deep midwicket, and Asif picked out long-on. His final wicket came in the 17th over, as he pinned the dangerous Hasan Ali lbw. Riaz’s method was fairly uncomplicated, hitting the pitch hard on a good length outside off stump, but the simplicity brought him his rewards.
