While Rassie van der Dussen’s flawless century was in vain, Peshawar Zalmi secured their second victory in PSL 9 with Saim Ayub’s aggressive batting display. On Sunday night at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, the Lahore Qalandars fell eight runs short of the 212-run mark. In the PSL 9, the home team, Qalandars, has suffered five losses in a row.
Pitch report and toss update
Gaddafi Stadium is renowned for having one of the best batting surfaces, which creates ideal conditions for batters to showcase their skills. Recent information, meanwhile, suggests that bowlers might not get much help from the pitch.
On this pitch, even the best bowlers have to put in a lot of effort, often at the expense of giving up runs. Having won the toss, Lahore Qalandars chose to bowl first.
Saim and Babar got Peshawar Zalmi to a solid start
Saim and Babar, the Peshawar Zalmi opening batsmen, came out blazing and scored 57 runs in the powerplay by hitting nine fours.
Peshawar Zalmi had amassed 90 runs at the halfway point without losing a wicket, setting the foundation for the massive total.
In the next over, Saim reached his ninth half-century in the PSL with a single and a majestic six, bringing up the 100-run opening partnership.
The second-highest opening partnership in PSL 9 was the 136-run stand that commenced between Saim and Babar. Following his return to action, Shaheen Shah Afridi removed Babar for 48 off 36 balls, which included five boundaries, denying him the half-century mark.
Peshawar Zalmi reached to a mammoth total with Powell’s power hitting
Powell hammered Mohammad Imran Jr.’s 16th over for 22 runs, with the help of two fours and as many sixes. The pair put up a 17-ball, 39-run second-wicket partnership.
Saim replied with a 55-ball 88, hitting eight fours and four sixes, but fell victim to a deadly yorker from Shaheen. The game took a dramatic turn when Asif Ali followed Saim to the dugout, but only after hitting Shaheen for a six over fine-leg boundary.
Mohammad Haris, batting at number five, was undefeated for five balls, making twelve, then Powell hammered his way to a quick 46 runs off of just 20 balls, helping Peshawar Zalmi to 211-4 in the stated 20 overs. Jahandad Khan claimed a single wicket, while Shaheen claimed three wickets.
Lahore Qalandars started slowly as they lost couple of wickets
Lahore Qalandars, needing 212 to win, lost their opening batsman, Sahibzada Farhan, early on when he was caught by Naveen-ul-Haq in the third over. Van der Dussen hit two straight fours to indicate his approach to the crease. Luke Wood began to disrupt the timber, and soon after, Fakhar Zaman came back for a meager eight-ball four.
The Qalandars lost two batters and scored 56 runs by the end of the powerplay. Van der Dussen and Shai Hope managed to form a third-wicket partnership of 71 runs, with 18 runs coming from the 11th over.
With the Qalandars needing 103 runs from 45 balls, Salman Irshad struck to dismiss Hope as the West Indies batsman walked back for 29 off 23 balls.
van der Dussen tried but fell short to chase it down for the Qalandars
Ahsan Hafeez Bhatti and van der Dussen established a fourth-wicket partnership that lasted for 26 balls and produced 55 runs before Naveen dismissed Ahsan with the aid of a superb catch made in the deep by Saim, with the needed run rate gradually rising to 15.
Southpaw Jahandad Khan struck Salman three fours in the over to give Qalandars 13 runs, needing 47 from the final three overs. In the penultimate over, van der Dussen scored his sixth T20 and first PSL century, going undefeated at 104 off 52 balls as Lahore lost by eight runs.
Naveen took two wickets for Peshawar Zalmi, while Salman, Wood, and Walter each returned with one wicket.
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