ABU DHABI (Monitoring Desk): Misbah-ul-Haq smashed 59 runs to propel Peshawar Zalmi to beat Lahore Qalandars by four wickets after a nail-biting contest at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. He along with Darren Sammy put 100 runs on the scoreboard for the sixth wicket which took Zalmi over the victory line convincingly.
Earlier, Tymal Mills (3-29) and Sameen Gul (2-17) guided Peshawar Zalmi to restrict Lahore Qalandars to 124-7. While batting first, Qalandars faced problems from the very start as they kept losing wickets after regular intervals. Tymal Mills struck for the first time in this season by getting rid of Anton Devcich who walked off after scoring five runs.
Fakhar Zaman smashed a couple of boundaries but then fell to Sameen Gul after edging the ball behind the stumps. The wicket of Zaman left Qalandars under immense pressure. He scored just 11 runs. Later Liam Dawson joined the party and hunt Ten Doeschate who walked down the pitch to charge the left-arm spinner but couldn’t have enough of it as he got caught at long off by Kieron Pollard.
Substitute fielder Khalid Usman got rid of Haris Sohail who was looking in good touch by taking a magnificent catch at the third man. Haris remained the highest run scorer for Qalandars with 43 runs.
Umair Masood was the other man who tried hard to hold his team’s command with the bat by scoring 22 runs but Tymal Mills bowled back of the hand to deceive him and the ball went straight to hit the stumps. Wahab Riaz and Liam Dawson took a wicket each.
Qalandars thrashed Zalmi by reducing them to 20-5 with young Shaheen Shah Afridi showing his class. He was on song taking Imam-ul-Haq on charge and sent him home on a deceiving delivery.
Right-handed batsman Kamran Akmal missed Rahat Ali completely as the ball went straight to thrash the stumps. He scored just three runs. Afridi then removed Umar Amin and Liam Dawson in a row to reduce Zalmi to 12-4 in four overs. Qalandars was on high thereafter but Misbah and Sammy did the job well for their team.
Skipper Darren Sammy scored 46 runs off 36 balls including four boundaries and a six. Misbah struck four boundaries and two sixes during his stay at the crease. Afridi picked four wickets while Rahat Ali, David Wiese, and Ten Doeschate bagged a wicket each for Qalandars.
