Daily Times

LAHORE: Mohammad Haris and Shoaib Malik hit fine knocks of 70 and 38 respectively as Peshawar Zalmi defeated Islamabad United by 10 runs in their Pakistan Super League VII match at Gaddafi Stadium here on Thursday night. Chasing a formidable target of 207, Islamabad could muster only 196-7. Islamabad were provided with a brilliant start as opener Rahmanuallah Gurbaz hammered 46 runs in 19 balls. Later on Azam Khan put on a mighty fight but the Peshawar’s bowlers held on to seal their third win in a row. Azam hit 85 runs in 45 balls, but his wicket in the penultimate over of the chase ended Islamabad’s hopes. Azam smacked seven sixes and six fours. Salman Irshad impressed with 3 for 29, and he together with Wahab Riaz, helped Peshawar reach home. It is pertinent to mention that Peshawar skipper Wahab also became the first bowler in the PSL to get 100 wickets. Wahab’s hundredth wicket came when he dismissed Danish Aziz for a golden duck. No bowler in the tournament has gotten even to 80 overall wickets. Hasan Ali is the second leading wicket-taker in PSL with 78 scalps to his name, followed by Shadab Khan (63), and Shaheen Shah Afridi (61). Interestingly, Wahab is also the most capped player in PSL, the game against Islamabad was his 75th PSL match. The next most capped player to Wahab is his teammate Kamran Akmal who has featured in 73 PSL matches, followed by Sarfaraz Ahmed with 70 matches.

Earlier, Peshawar posted a big total for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs, courtesy of opener Haris’ fiery knock. Haris along with Hazratullah Zazai opened the innings. One It was expected of Zazai to go rampant, he is an experienced batsman having played at the international level, but he didn’t play a huge knock having been removed after scoring 13 runs. Both the openers gave Peshawar a 73-run start. Haris continued to carve quick runs and was finally dismissed by Waqas Maqsood in the 9.3 overs. Yasir Khan started hitting boundaries and scored 35 runs off 24 balls with two sixes and three fours. He was removed by Zahir Khan. Shoaib also continued his brilliant form as he faced 23 balls and hit two sixes and was removed by Faheem Ashraf in the 17.2 overs. Faheem picked three wickets for 33 runs in four overs while Waqas gave away 34 runs and claimed two wickets.

Brief scores:

Peshawar Zalmi 206 for 8 (Mohammad Haris 70, Shoaib Malik 38, Faheem Ashraf 3-33) beat Islamabad United 196 for 7 (Azam Khan 85, Rahmanullah Gurbaz 46, Salman Irshad 3-29) by 10 runs.

Today’s matches:

Multan Sultans vs Quetta Gladiators

at 02:30 pm (PST)

Lahore Qalandars vs Karachi Kings

at 07:30 pm (PST)