SHARJAH: Hasan Ali produced another incisive spell of fast bowling and Imam-Ul-Haq scored a brilliant half-century to set up a five-wicket win for Peshawar Zalmi over Multan Sultans in their HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) match at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
After striking on the first ball of the chase to trap Liam Livingstone lbw two matches earlier in Peshawar’s win over Karachi Kings, Hasan struck on the second ball of the match on Sunday to claim another Englishman early in proceedings as James Vince was bowled by a superb delivery that seamed back to get Peshawar off to a hot start.
But it was Peshawar’s hot finish in both innings that eventually won them the match. Hasan began the 19th with the wicket of Shoaib Malik to spark a sequence of six wickets in 12 balls as Multan went from 140 for 4 to 145 all out, effectively letting Johnson Charles’ 28-ball half-century go to waste.
Hasan had Malik caught behind, he was given not out on field but the decision was overturned on DRS. Two balls later, Shahid Afridi fell slogging him to long-on before Hammad Azam was trapped with another ball that seamed in sharply.
Peshawar suffered an early blow in their response when Kamran Akmal was caught by Mohammad Ilyas off Mohammad Irfan to leave them at 6-1. But Imam joined Dawid Malan (38) as they made a steady 68 runs for the second wicket partnership.
Malan was sent back to the pavilion by Dan Christian when he had him caught behind.After Imam was controversially given out for 52 in the 17th over off the bowling of Junaid Khan, a string of dot-balls from Junaid and Irfan built pressure, which was eventually broken by Kieron Pollard.
Third umpire Rashid Riaz drew Peshawar’s ire with his curious call to uphold Imam’s lbw dismissal at a critical moment of the chase. Replays seemed to clearly show Junaid had no part of his front foot behind the line.
Peshawar’s dugout was furious that a no-ball was not called to allow Imam’s innings to continue.But Pollard’s four consecutive sixes took the equation from 31 off 16 balls down to under a run-a-ball with two overs left before Daren Sammy eventually clipped the winning single in the final over with two balls to spare.
Cricketing body notifies ICC of decision made after chairman met with UAE's president
Opening batter becomes first in ODI cricket history to get out on ducks in all games of a series
Sufiyan Muqeem, Saim Ayub starred with ball, while Shaneen and Naseem claimed two wickets each
Uncapped Sufiyan earns his place in lineup on back of stellar performances in T20I series against Zimbabwe
Gongadi Trisha's impressive half-century saves the day for Blue Shirts
Matter finalised during meeting between PCB chief Naqvi, UAE cricket board's head in Ghotki, say sources
