CRICKET
PSL: Peshawar win by 10 runs
Salman Irshad and Wahab Riaz held their nerves in the death overs to lead Peshawar Zalmi into an outstanding win over Islamabad United.
Azam Khan played a wonderful knock but he didn’t get his side over the line in the final overs.
Mohammed Haris sparkled once again at the top for Peshawar as he scored an excellent half-century.
Peshawar Zalmi gained two important points and now they are on the 3rd position of the points table with 5 wins in 9 games.
Peshawar Zalmi 20 overs 206-8
Haris 70 (32) Faheem 3-33 Malik 38 (23) Waqas 2-34 Yasir 35 (24) de Lange 1-32
Islamabad United 20 overs 196-7
Azam 85 (45) Irshad 3-29 Gurbaz 46 (19) Wahab 2-26 Mubasir 21 (19) Talat 1-30
Peshawar collapsed in the last 5 overs after an outstanding start from Mohammad Haris followed by some crucial contributions from Yasir Khan (35 off 24) and Shoaib Malik (38 off 23).
At one stage Peshawar was looking good to score 230 plus runs but there was an anticlimax in the last 5 overs as they only added 41 runs with the loss of 5 wickets in the death overs.
Peshawar Zalmi still managed to put 206 runs on the board from their 20 overs.
The sensational knock from Haris
The young Mohammad Haris in just his 3rd PSL match, played another excellent knock to give a superb start to his side.
The right-handed batter was outstanding in the powerplay and he scored runs all around the ground.
Haris completed his half-century in just 18 balls and the well-known hard hitter Hazratullah Zazai was just watching his destructive knock like a spectator from the other end.
Haris smashed 7 fours and 5 sixes in his knock of 70 runs that came off just 32 deliveries.
Gurbaz’s fiery start
While chasing a total of 207 runs, Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave an outstanding start to Islamabad United.
Peshawar made a blunder by applying leg spinners from both ends right from the start.
Gurbaz smoked Livingstone for 20 runs including 3 sixes from the very first over of the innings.
In the next over, Gurbaz scored 22 runs against Usman Qadir including 3 sixes and a four.
Gurbaz gave a dream start to Islamabad as they scored 50 runs from the first 3 overs.
After scoring 46 runs from just 19 balls, he was dismissed by Salman Irshad in the 4th over of the powerplay.
Azam Khan’s destructive 85 in vain
Islamabad lost regular wickets throughout their chase but the big man Azam Khan keep Islamabad in the game with his unbelievable batting.
Azam was in red-hot hitting form as he smashed some gigantic sixes in his knock.
He made the chase easier with his power-hitting but Islamabad was needing only just 24 runs from 11 balls, he got caught out to leave his side helpless.
As a result, Islamabad lost the match by 10 runs and ruined all the hard work of Azam Khan in this chase.
Azam scored 85 runs from just 45 balls including 6 fours and 7 superb sixes.
Salman Irshad grabbed 3 while Wahab took 2 wickets.