DUBAI: Shahid Afridi played a dazzling knock as Peshawar Zalmi defeated Quetta Gladiators by two wickets in their Pakistan Super League contest at Dubai International Stadium here on Saturday night. Peshawar, opting to bowl first, restricted Quetta to 128. The chase of 129 appeared comfortable for Peshawar near the halfway mark. However, in their chase, at one point, they had lost six wickets for just 52 runs. Afridi walked in and played silently while Mohammad Hafeez rotated strike. The duo restored some sanity to proceedings in a crucial 37-run partnership. As soon as Hafeez was out, Afridi took matters into his own hands and scored unbeaten 45 off 23 balls courtesy three sixes and as many boundaries to guide his team to victory with four balls remaining.
Earlier, Peshawar had earlier kept the opposition down to 128 by exploiting the prodigious turn the surface provided, putting Quetta on the back foot immediately when Mohammad Asghar dismissed both openers in the second over. Rilee Rossouw and Kevin Pietersen then consolidated with a mature 86-run partnership, but superb death bowling by Wahab Riaz and Hasan Ali meant Peshawar could never build on the good work earlier, and only 16 came off the last four overs as Quetta limped to the end of the innings to a total they couldn’t quite defend. Peshawar take Quetta’s place at the top of the table with this win, with Quetta slipping to second. Both sides are on nine points, but Darren Sammy’s side have a superior net run rate.