Peshawar Zalmi 179 for 8 (Haris 79, Rajapaksa 41, Hasan 3-39) beat Islamabad United 166 (Ashraf 38, Shahzad 3-19, Muqueem 3-37) by 13 runs
Quetta Gladiators’ defeat on Saturday evening evening confirmed this sport could be little greater than a warm-up for when these two sides meet within the Eliminator on Thursday. And it was Peshawar Zalmi who made the extra consequential assertion, stifling United’s batting line-up for the second sport in succession, edging them out by 13 runs.
United gained the toss and inserted Zalmi, making the very best begin when Fazalhaq Farooqi cleaned up Saim Ayub for a duck. However Haris was unfazed on the different finish, getting the ball rolling by clobbering Hasan Ali the next over. Farooqi wasn’t spared the next over, smoked for an additional 14 at Haris’ palms. Rajapaksa joined in from the opposite finish, walloping Faheem Ashraf for 17 within the closing powerplay over as Zalmi overcame the early dismissal to submit 69 within the first six.
The pair barely seen that the sphere had been unfold out. Rajapaksa smashed Shadab for a six off his third ball earlier than Haris gave the United captain a hiding in his second over, citing a 26-ball 50, in addition to Zalmi’s hundred within the ninth over. By the midway mark, that they had posted 116, nicely heading in the right direction to place up one more rating in extra of 200 at this bowlers’ graveyard.
Within the second half of the innings, nonetheless, United introduced the complete power of their bowling to bear. Shadab eliminated Rajapaksa in his third over, earlier than a Zalmi procession of wickets ensued. Stand-in captain Tom-Kohler Cadmore, deputising for an ailing Babar Azam, was solely good for a cameo earlier than Shadab struck once more to take away the white-hot Haris, and Zalmi’s delicate underbelly was uncovered.
Hasan Ali struck twice within the seventeenth over to intestine the lower-middle order, and by now Zalmi had been hobbling. They limped to 179 by the point the innings closed out, that means the second ten overs had seen simply 63 runs scored and 7 wickets fall.
It ought to have been easy, even when Hassan Nawaz fell to Khurram Shahzad within the opening over. Sohaib Maqsood’s first-ball six was a Haris-like assertion of intent, however having flown to fifteen off 5 balls, he tickled one by way of to the keeper off his sixth. A scratchy innings from Alex Hales ended when Aamer Jamal acquired him to drill one to Kohler-Cadmore, and Neesham struck to finish a equally gritty innings from Colin Munro.
