Multan Sultans 124 for 4 (Rossouw 49*, Shah 43*, Riaz 2-36) beat
Peshawar Zalmi 123 (Ali 47, Tanvir 4-13, Ilyas 2-23) by six wickets
How the game played out
Shan Masood's men gave the home fans a night to remember on PSL 2020's debut night in Multan as a rip-roaring bowling performance set up a simple chase iced by Rilee Rossouw's unbeaten 49 in a six-wicket win against Peshawar Zalmi.
Mohammad Irfan had Tom Banton dropped at slip by James Vince on the first ball of the match, but it was just about the only misstep on the night by Multan in the field. Banton fell five balls later driving Irfan to Shahid Afridi at extra cover and the Multan pacers continued to rip through the Peshawar line-up, aided by Sohail Tanvir's four-wicket haul, to eventually bowl out the visitors for just 123 in 18.3 overs.
In a deja vu moment, Darren Sammy dropped the first ball of the Multan chase at slip when James Vince edged a drive off Hasan Ali, only for the bowler to have Vince caught at mid-on by the end of the over. Whereas Peshawar were 41 for 4 at one stage, Multan slipped to a near-identical 47 for 4 in the seventh over when Zeeshan Ashraf cut Wahab Riaz to Banton at backward point.
But that was where the similarities between the two innings ceased. Rossouw got Multan back on track before he was slowed down with a hip injury after getting pinged by Wahab to end the 12th over. He was then dropped in the 14th on 46 by Livingstone at deep cover off Mohammad Amir Khan, the last sniff Peshawar had of an unlikely fightback.
From there, Khushdil Shah helped send the home fans home with happy hearts by smashing a no-ball by Amir Khan through mid-off for four before clubbing a slower ball on the free hit 20 yards over the long-on rope for six to end the 14th. Another six yanked flat over square leg off Wahab in the 15th by Khushdil put Multan one stroke away from victory. It was sealed with a single down the ground by Rossouw, clinching a mostly one-sided contest.
While chasing a target of 124 runs, Sultans reached home in 15th over of the innings courtesy a sensible unbeaten knock, 49 runs off 42 balls, by South African batsman Rilee Rossouw. He was ably supported by Pakistan cricketer Khushdil Shah, who remained not out on 43 runs off 29 balls.The Sultans had lost four wickets with just 47 runs on the board but Rossouw and Shah ensured that there were no further jitters as their side cruised to victory.
For Zalmi, pacer Wahab Riaz claimed two wickets while fellow fast-bowlers Rahat Ali and Hasan Ali claimed one wicket each.
Despite being dropped on the very first ball of the innings, Tom Banton failed to make the most of the reprieve as pacer Mohammad Irfan got the better of him on the fifth ball of the same over, courtesy a brilliant catch by veteran all-rounder Shahid Afridi. He could only score four runs.
Fellow opener Kamran Akmal could not repeat his heroics from the previous game, where he scored a century, and fell after scoring 15 runs off nine balls. Left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir was the successful bowler on this occasion.
Young pacer Mohammad Ilyas took the wickets of middle-order batsman Shoaib Malik (2) and Liam Livingstone (o) to further dent Zalmi.
Rookie batsman Haider Ali was the only Zalmi batsman who impressed in the middle, scoring a brisk 47 off just 27 balls. He was eventually dismissed, trying to clear the boundary, by Tanvir.
Peshawar’s lower-order also seemed out of sorts, during their turn with the bat, and it was only Liam Dawson’s 22 runs off 23 balls which added some respectability to the team’s total.
For Sultans, Tanvir was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/13 in 3.3 overs. His fellow pacers Irfan and Ilyas claimed two wickets each, while leg-spinners Afridi and Imran Tahir bagged one wicket each.
For his brilliant bowling performance, Sohail Tanvir was declared player of the match.
Peshawar Zalmi have set a target of 124 runs for Multan Sultans as the city of saints hosts its first-ever Pakistan Super League (PSL) match.
Though Haider Ali looked in impressive form, making 47 runs off 27 balls, he couldn't find a steady partner in the batting lineup as wickets kept falling at the other end.
With the Zalmis failing to build momentum at any stage in the innings, the 2017 PSL winners were all out for 123, with nine balls to spare.Shoaib Malik and Liam Livingstone were sent packing at the start of the fifth over by excellent bowling from Mohammad Ilyas.
Tanvir returned to dismiss Haider Ali, caught by Rilee Rossouw in the 11th over, and Hasan Ali, caught by Ilyas in the 17th over.
Earlier, the Sultans had won the toss and invited Zalmi to bat first as the PSL resumed after a two-day break at Multan Stadium.
Tom Banton was an early casualty after a superb catch by Shahid Afridi in the middle of the first over, scoring only four runs from five balls.
Zalmi's golden boy Kamran Akmal was also sent back to the pavilion in the third over after being caught out by James Vince off Sohail Tanveer.
A win for either team in today's match will take them atop the fledgling PSL standings, tied on four points with Islamabad United and holders Quetta Gladiators.
Multan opened the fifth PSL season with a victory against the Qalandars but suffered an eight-wicket thrashing from United in their second game.
Zalmi came into the game on the back of a morale-boosting six-wicket triumph over the Gladiators after losing their opener to the Kings. Kamran Akmal has been their standout performer so far, scoring a century against the Gladiators to help his side grab their first points of the season.
Teams:
MULTAN SULTANS: Shan Masood (captain), James Vince, Moeen Ali, Rilee Rossouw, Zeeshan Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Irfan, Imran Tahir, Sohail Tanvir, Ilyas Khan, Bilawal Bhatti, Ravi Bopara, Usman Qadir, Rohail Nazir.
PESHAWAR ZALMI: Darren Sammy (captain), Kamran Akmal, Haider Ali, Shoaib Malik, Tom Banton, Wahab Riaz, Liam Livingstone, Hasan Ali, Amir Khan, Mohammad Mohsin, Rahat Ali, Liam Dawson., Umar Amin, Imam-ul-Haq.
Tags:
sports