SHARJAH: Stand-in Moham­mad Hafeez, by his own admission, conceded Peshawar Zalmi were left to do the chasing in the HBL Pakistan Super League clash here after their bowlers had been pasted all over by Multan Sultans late Tuesday night.

Sohaib Maqsood led a spectacular counterattack after defending champions Peshawar had done a reasonable job in the first 12 overs during which Multan reached 76 for the loss of Kumar Sangakkara’s wicket 28. Sohaib thrashed an unbeaten 85 with his 42-ball man-of-the-match knock containing seven sixes and four fours which were all hit during the final eight overs as Shoaib Malik’s side amassed 107 runs with Sohaib singlehandedly responsible for 77 of them in just 30 balls.

“Sohaib made the big difference with a fantastic innings to take the match away from us. And although we did come back, it was a big ask to get over the line,” Hafeez told a press conference after Multan had wrapped up a 19-run victory at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

“I’ll be the first one to admit that we didn’t bowl well but credit to Sohaib for playing superbly; Given that the dew could affect the fielding team, we opted for four pace bowlers. But unfortunately, they took a real hammering [165 runs in 16 overs]. But it wasn’t our day at all to be honest.

“And then upfront we never got the start we had anticipated. When a team loses fat too many wickets upfront in the chase, it is always for the batsmen to get going. And moreover, we missed Darren Sammy who would have made a huge impact. But I’m sure we bounce back.”

Sohaib, meanwhile, expressed a sigh of relief after a poor start before putting the blame on himself for up-and-down form.

“I think I can’t say that my performance has been consistently good for a lengthy spell with injuries I had since my Pakistan debut in 2013. Hopefully this innings could change my career for the better because when you play like this it does gives you a lot of confidence,” Sohaib told reporters afterwards.

Scoreboard

MULTAN SULTANS:

Ahmed Shehzad run out 37K.C. Sangakkara b Dawson 28Sohaib Maqsood not out 85Shoaib Malik c Hasan b Umaid 13K.A. Pollard not out 16EXTRAS (LB-1, W-2, NB-1) 4TOTAL (for three wkts, 20 overs) 183FALL OF WKTS: 1-51, 2-107, 3-140.DID NOT BAT: D.M. Bravo, Saif Badar, Sohail Tanvir, Imran Tahir, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan. BOWLING: Sameen Gul 4-0-43-0; Umaid Asif 4-0-39-1; Hasan Ali 4-0-42-0 (1w); Wahab Riaz 4-0-41-0 (1nb, 1w); Dawson 4-1-17-1.

PESHAWAR ZALMI:Kamran Akmal c Malik b Irfan 9A.D.R. Fletcher c Sangakkara b Sohail 11D.R. Smith c Bravo b Pollard 18M. Hafeez c Sangakkara b Pollard 56M.H. Wessels c Shehzad b Pollard 22L.A. Dawson c Bravo b Sohail 32Hammad Azam c Sangakkara b Sohail 0Hasan Ali c Shehzad b Pollard 3Wahab Riaz not out 6Umaid Asif not out 0EXTRAS (B-1, LB-4, W-2) 7 TOTAL (for eight wkts, 20 overs) 164 FALL OF WKTS: 1-19, 2-25, 3-53, 4-102, 5-151, 6-152, 7-156, 8-158.DID NOT BAT: Sameen Gul.BOWLING: Sohail Tanvir 4-0-14-3; Mohammad Irfan 4-0-32-2; Junaid Khan 4-0-45-0; Imran Tahir 4-0-31-0; Pollard 4-0-37-3 (2w).RESULT: Multan Sultans won by 19 runs.UMPIRES: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Asif Yaqoob (Pakistan).TV UMPIRE: Shozab Raza (Pakistan).MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Anees (Pakistan).MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Sohaib Maqsood.THURSDAY’S FIXTURES: Islamabad United vs Lahore Qalandars (4:30pm, PST); Karachi Kings vs Quetta Gladiators (9:00pm, PST).

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2018