Usama Mir‘s clinical bowling helped Multan Sultans breezed into their fourth straight Pakistan Super League final by defeating Peshawar Zalmi by seven wickets in a lopsided qualifier on Thursday. Sultans won the event in 2021 before losing to Lahore Qalandars in the finals of the last two editions. Usama Mir on a slowish wicket produced a match winning performance that enabled the Multan Sultans to book a place into the finals .
On a slow and scruffy surface, the Sultans bowlers kept Zalmi to an under-par total of 146 which the batters led by Yasir Khan chased down with seven wickets and nine balls to spare. Zalmi, however, will have another opportunity to make the final and meet the same opponents there.
Pitch and Toss
Off-side boundary is 63 meters and there’s a 10-meter longer boundary at square leg, 78 meters long on and 74 meters at long-off. Waqar Younis says that halfway down the track, it’s rock hard and reckons it’s going to come nicely onto the bat. He adds that spinners might get purchase if they are ready to give it more flight.
Babar Azam skipper of Peshawar Zalmi won the toss and decided to bat. Peshawar Zalmi made one change in the squad as Naveen Ul Haq resuming his national duties with Afghanistan vs Ireland is replaced by Paul Walter
Multan Sultans having to bowl first went with unchanged eleven.
Peshawar Zalmi has a decent powerplay.
The victory, in many ways, was set up by a mid-innings squeeze by the Sultans bowlers after Zalmi had managed a 51-run powerplay. Babar Azam and Mohammad Haris made a sprightly opening after the loss of Saim Ayub in the first over but Haris’ dismissal off the last ball of the sixth over bowled by Mohammad Ali was most inopportune. The spinners that came on to bowl next, Iftikhar Ahmed and Usama Mir, proceeded to apply the choke with the next four overs bringing only 16 runs.
Earlier, Zalmi struggled against pace and spin after Babar won the toss and elected to bat. David Willey had danger-man Saim Ayub caught at deep square leg in the first over and Mohammad Haris’ (22) below-par tournament continued when he edged fast bowler Mohammad Ali inside the power play.
Usama Mir and bowlers keep the chase to 147
Zalmi elected to bat after winning the toss in this crucial encounter, just as they had done in their last league match here three nights before. Then they had successfully defended 147 by two runs against Karachi Kings and with batting proving to get progressively difficult over the course of the game, they would have had reasons to believe a similar score plus the added factor of it being a playoff game could be competitive enough. But against a batting line-up not missing a beat thus far in the tournament, it proved to be far from competitive.
At the end of the 13th over, Zalmi reached 97/3 with Babar and Tom Kohler-Cadmore looking to get a move on. It was then that Jordan came back into the attack after having conceded 12 in the one powerplay over he’d sent down. His fourth ball tailed into Babar and squeezed past the star batter’s attempts to jam the bat down in defence. Bowled by a 143kph yorker, the well-set Babar was dismissed for a 42-ball 46 leaving new batters to confront a reversing ball.
Jordan went on to concede only 16 runs from his final three overs, bowling an array of yorkers and full-length deliveries. He added the wicket of the big-hitting Rovman Powell to deny Zalmi a finishing kick while leggie Usama Mir finished with equally impressive figures of 2 for 16. Those two efforts meant Zalmi were pushed significantly behind the eight-ball, something they never recovered from.
Babar, the tournament’s leading run-scorer, top-scored with 46 off 42 balls but spinners Usama Mir (2-16) and Ahmed (0-9) stifled the batters in the middle overs. Chris Jordan (2-28) had Babar clean bowled off a pacy yorker in the 13th over and the Englishman tied down batters in the death overs with his variations as Peshawar could score only 38 runs off the final five overs to reach a modest of 146 runs.
Multan Sultan’s races to quickfire 80 runs within first 10 overs to make an chase an easy one
The chase was effectively sealed in the first 10 overs as the Sultans raced away to 80/1 with Yasir Khan getting to a 32-ball half-century. Forty-five of Sultans’ runs came in the powerplay and while Mohammad Rizwan was a surprisingly passive participant, he ensured Zalmi didn’t get any breakthroughs or new batters to apply the pressure on.
While Yasir’s innings brought volume, the back-up batting was impressive in averting a late wobble. Usman Khan scored a steady, unbeaten 36 while Iftikhar Ahmed hastened the end game with an 8-ball 22.
Opening batter Yasir Khan (54) and the in-form Usman Khan (36*) powered Sultans to 147-3 in 18.3 overs after Zalmi were restricted to below-par 146-7. In the absence of Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq, who was ruled out of the playoffs because of his international commitment, Zalmi’s bowlers struggled to defend a small total.
Yasir provided a dominant opening stand of 61 with captain Mohammad Rizwan (15) and raised a match-wining half-century off 30 balls. Left-arm spinner Mehran Mumtaz (1-28) couldn’t make an impact in the power play but he finally had Yasir caught off his own bowling, in the 11th over, during his return spell.
Iftikhar Ahmed and in form Usman Khan sees the chase of for Multan Sultans
Usman Khan , who became the first batter in PSL history to score two centuries in one season, was hardly troubled by pace, and Iftikhar Ahmed finished off the game with a quick-fire 22 off eight balls.
Forty-five of Sultans’ runs came in the powerplay and while Mohammad Rizwan was a surprisingly passive participant, he ensured Zalmi didn’t get any breakthroughs or new batters to apply the pressure on. While Yasir’s innings brought volume, the back-up batting was impressive in averting a late wobble. Usman Khan scored a steady, unbeaten 36 while Iftikhar Ahmed hastened the end game with an 8-ball 22.
Presentations and Road Ahead.
Babar Azam The loosing Peshawar Zalmi skipper said :
“We were 15 runs short. We started well but we lost wickets in the middle overs. Me and Tom decided that 160-170 was a par score but we did not finish well in the last 5 overs. Whoever comes we will try to win and go to the final. We have to work on a couple of things on our batting and bowling ahead of the next game,”
“It was tough conditions and they bowled well, I backed myself and built my innings. Had I stayed there, maybe things might have been different. Just believe in yourself and as a bunch of players we are confident and we will come back strongly,”
Mohammad Rizwan The winning Multan Sultan skipper said :
“It’s a very happy moment. But still we have one more game and all that effort so far matters in that game, so we will focus on that. If you look at the last year or before that, even the losing matches this season, the finishing touch was not there. We will ask the almighty that we will do well in the final. Any tournament you see, if the bowlers are at the top, then they mostly win,”
“The positive for us is that even the batters are at the top but we can’t be complacent and will have to continue to work hard. [on Yasir Khan] He was a capable batter earlier as well, but what I liked tonight was the way he got beaten first ball and then hit the next one for six, creating that momentum. It’s a surprise that the crowd has not turned up in Karachi, it could be due to namaz, Ramzan or other things but hopefully they come down for the upcoming games,”
Usama Mir Player of the Match for is bowling performance said :
“I’m happy my team won. The way Rizi bhai and the management gives me confidence, saying you are the main spinner helps me. If you bowl in the right areas, a leggie will be successful on any track and I try to focus on hitting the right areas, it worked tonight,”
“The way Willey gives us the start up top makes it easier for me in the middle and the way CJ bowls at the death, as well as Mohammad Ali and Abbas Afridi, it’s a well-rounded bowling unit,”
Multan are a winning machine and they get the job done easily. Fourth final in a row. Super consistent they are. Peshawar needed early wickets to make a match of this but Rizwan and Yasir Khan snuffed that out with a solid opening stand. After that it was about keeping their nerve and knocking it around in the middle overs which they did.
Charles found it tough but Iftikhar Ahmed came out and ended it in a jiffy. But credit to Multan’s bowlers who made the chase easier. The pitch got slower as the game went and there was reverse swing on offer as well, but Peshawar just did not have enough to defend. They though have another chance to get to the final as they finished in the top two in the league stage. The Zalmi side will now face the winner from the first eliminator today between Islamabad United and Quetta Gladiators.