LAHORE: Quetta Gladiators’ Will Smeed fought hard with his gritty 99 but Usman Qadir’s astonishing spell assisted Peshawar Zalmi to beat Gladiators by 24 runs in the 22nd match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) season 7.
Set to chase 186, Gladiators batters failed to get going. The opener Smeed, however, retaliated till the end with his valiant 99 off 60 balls, laced with 12 boundaries and three sixes.
Despite his heroic innings, the Gladiators could not manage to pull off the victory as the 20-years-old received no support from the other end. Gladiators’ skipper – Sarfaraz Ahmed remained the second top-scorer after Smeed; scoring a mere 25 off 21 balls.
For the Zalmi, Usman starred; taking three wickets, while Salman Irshad took two. Liam Livingstone, Wahab Riaz, and Hussain Talat struck out a batter each.
Batting first, the Zalmi managed to post 185/7 in the allotted 20 overs, thanks to the half-centuries from Shoaib Malik and Hussain Talat.
The Zalmi started the proceedings poorly as Naseem Shah removed their explosive batters – Hazratullah Zazai and Liam Livingstone cheaply in his first over.
With the side stranded at 6-2 in the second over, experienced batter Shoaib anchored the innings with Mohammad Haris; putting on a magnificent 52-runs partnership before the young batter perished after scoring a brilliant 29 off 17 balls, laced with six boundaries.
Malik then recorded another brilliant partnership with Talat and anchored the innings for the Zalmi. The pair batted brilliantly as both the batters went on smash half-centuries.
Talat scored 51 off 33, while Malik top-scored with 58 off 41 deliveries; smashing eight boundaries.
In the 19th over, Ben Cutting went hard at Sohail Tanvir; smashing four sixes to the left-arm pacer. Cutting’s astonishing cameo of 36 runs off just 14 deliveries with the help of four sixes and a boundary bolstered the side’s score.
For the Gladiators, Naseem Shah shone; taking four wickets, while Khurram Shehzad, Iftikhar Ahmed, and Ghulam Mudassar struck out a batter each.
Following this victory, Zalmi have now claimed the fourth position in the PSL 7 points table, while the Gladiators have been demoted to the fifth spot.
