RAWALPINDI: The cro­wds had thronged in in numbers to the Pindi Cric­ket Stadium on Friday night. As their chants suggested, the love for Babar Azam had drawn them to the venue. “Babar, Babar” reverberated round the roofless arena and, by far the most adored cricketer in Pakistan and Peshawar Zalmi’s captain, did not disappoint.

Babar’s act was of class, first with the bat and then with his captaincy — assi­sted by coaches Darren Sam­my and Umar Gul on the sidelines — as Zalmi thrashed Quetta Gladiators by 76 runs in the HBL Paki­stan Super League match.

The former Pakistan skipper, like he mostly does, gave Zalmi a start with the bat that would go on to negate Quetta spinner Akeal Hosein’s hat-trick.

Defending a 196-8, which included his 53 off 29 balls, Babar introduced Saim Ayub’s so-called “part-time” off-spin to break Quetta’s back at a point when it turned the game around in Zalmi’s favour till the end of it.

The win took Zalmi to second in the PSL league stage standings and booked their place in the playoffs, as they became to make the knockout stages in all the nine seasons of the franchise tournament. Quetta, meanwhile, fell to the fourth place.

Quetta approached the target with aggression from the word go, and their powerplay was about exquisite hitting by openers Jason Roy and Saud Shakeel — his two sixes off pacer Naveen-ul-Haq standing out — but both were out before the end of the fielding restrictions, with the scorecard reading 56-2.

The openers’ departure put a stop to the flow of runs for Quetta and Babar’s decision to call up Saim to bowl his off-spin at that point when left-handed Rilee Rossouw was on the crease along with Khawaja Nafay turned out to be a brilliant one.

Rossouw went after a flighted delivery by Saim, attempting to clear midwicket, only for the ball to find Aamer Jamal’s safe hands. Seeing his partner and captain fall at the other end, Nafay panicked too and ended up finding the fielder on the leg-side two balls later.

At the halfway stage, Quetta were reeling at 76-4.

Debutant Laurie Evans was next to go thanks to s a running catch by Rovman Powell at long-on off Aamer. Hosein and Omair bin Yousuf followed in quick successions, pacers Luke Wood and Naveen-ul-Haq taking the wickets, effectively wrapping up the proceedings.

Put into bat by Quetta after losing the toss, Zalmi went off to a flying start thanks to their in-form openers in Babar and Saim.

Both were absolutely destructive throughout their stay on the crease. Babar, however, stayed for longer than Saim, going on to register yet another PSL half-century.

But it was only Babar and Saim — the sensational left-hander plundering the Quetta bowlers for a 12-ball 30 — who kept Zalmi on the top before Quetta took over, with Hosein’s hat-trick saving the side from conceding an even bigger total.

A chip over the in-field for four followed by a flick of the wrist for six off pacer Sohail Khan saw Babar and Zalmi get going before Saim opened his arms with a massive hit against Mohammad Amir over midwicket for six and was given a second life when Roy dropped him at mid-off in the third over, leaving Amir frustrated.

Saim celebrated the reprieve with two powerful sixes off Sohail in the next over, only to become the pacer and Quetta’s first wicket right after.

Babar, however, kept go­ing on, showing his class with three effortless stro­kes for boundaries in the fifth over off Mohammad Hasn­ain, boosting Zalmi to 70-1.

Quetta lost two quick wickets in Mohammad Haris’ and Haseebullah Khan before Zalmi posted 103-3 at the halfway stage.

The incoming Tom Kohler-Cadmore counterpunched with two fours off Hasnain’s pace and took on spinner Abrar Ahmed for a boundary and a huge hit for six. Babar ramped the spinner for four more and flicked gorgeously for another boundary to bring up his fifty in 29 balls.

But that was all for the former Pakistan captain, who was trapped lbw by Hosein on the very next ball that he faced.

Hosein gave away only five runs in that over and the pressure got to Kohler-Cadmore — who was growing in confidence at that point with 30 off 19 against his name — as the Englishman fell to Hasnain.

Hosein’s return to bowl the 16th over brought with it a nightmare. The Guyanese forced a nick off Aamer’s outside edge for wicket-keeper Evans to grab a tricky catch. Mehran Mumtaz followed Aamer as he played Hosein onto his stumps before Wood edged one to Rossouw in the slips. The hat-trick left Zalmi in tatters with eight wickets down for 157 before Rovman Powell’s 28 off 25 balls took Zalmi to total which was still more than enough for them.

POINTS TABLE

TEAMS M W L T N/R P NRR

Multan Sultans 8 6 2 0 0 12 0.967

Peshawar Zalmi 9 5 3 0 1 11 0.148

Islamabad United 9 4 4 0 1 9 0.221

Quetta Gladiators 8 4 3 0 1 9 -0.635

Karachi Kings 8 3 5 0 0 6 -0.241

Lahore Qalandars 8 1 6 0 1 3 -0.682

SCOREBOARD

PESHAWAR ZALMI:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Saim Ayub c Abrar b Sohail 30 12 1 3 250.00

Babar Azam lbw b Hosein 53 30 9 1 176.66

Mohammad Haris run out (Rossouw) 20 13 1 1 153.84

Haseebullah Khan b Abrar 6 6 1 0 100.00

Tom Kohler-Cadmore c Saud b Hasnain 33 19 4 1 173.68

Rovman Powell not out 28 25 4 0 112.00

Aamer Jamal c Evans b Hosein 5 4 1 0 125.00

Mehran Mumtaz b Hosein 0 1 0 0 0.00

Luke Wood c Rossouw b Hosein 0 1 0 0 0.00

Naveen-ul-Haq not out 10 9 0 1 111.11

EXTRAS (B-4, W-7) 11

TOTAL (for eight wickets, 20 overs) 196

DID NOT BAT: Khurram Shahzad

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-46 (Saim), 2-93 (Haris), 3-100 (Haseebullah), 4-136 (Babar), 5-147 (Kohler-Cadmore), 6-157 (Aamer), 7-157 (Mehran), 8-157 (Wood)

BOWLING: Amir 4-0-35-0 (4w), Sohail 4-0-48-1 (1w), Hasnain 4-0-52-1 (2w), Abrar 4-0-34-1, Hosein 4-0-23-4

QUETTA GLADIATORS:

Batters & modes of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

Jason Roy c Haseebullah b Wood 16 16 2 0 100.00

Saud Shakeel c Khurram b Mehran 24 12 2 2 200.00

Rilee Rossouw c Haris b Saim 8 11 1 0 72.72

Khawaja Nafay c Haris b Saim 5 7 0 0 71.42

Omair bin Yousuf c Aamer b Naveen 10 13 1 0 76.92

Laurie Evans c Powell b Aamer 12 13 2 0 92.30

Akeal Hosein c Haris b Wood 14 14 2 0 100.00

Sohail Khan c Haseebullah b Khurram 7 8 1 0 87.50

Mohammad Amir c Saim b Mehran 13 8 3 0 162.50

Mohammad Hasnain not out 2 3 0 0 66.66

Abrar Ahmed c Babar b Khurram 0 2 0 0 0.00

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-7) 9

TOTAL (all out, 17.5 overs) 120

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-46 (Saud), 2-53 (Roy), 3-60 (Rossouw), 4-61 (Nafay), 5-76 (Evans), 6-97 (Hosein), 7-97 (Omair), 8-114 (Amir), 9-120 (Sohail)

BOWLING: Saim 3-0-20-2 (1w), Wood 3-0-21-2 (1w), Khurram 2.5-0-15-2, Naveen 2-0-25-1, Mehran 4-0-22-2, Aamer 3-0-15-1 (1w)

RESULT: Peshawar Zalmi won by 76 runs.

PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Saim Ayub

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2024