Peshawar Zalmi extended their lead at the top of the table and reestablished their credentials as title favourites with a trouncing eight wicket win over Quetta Gladiators that takes them to the brink of playoff qualification. Sufiyan Muqeem and Iftikhar Ahmed’s spin threat was comfortably enough to overwhelm an unimposing Gladiators’ batting line-up, restricted to 154 with few significant batting contributions. Zalmi wasted little time showing up its insufficiency as Babar Azam on his way to topscoring with an unbeaten 71 off 51 – strung together partnerships with Mohammad Haris and Kusal Mendis in a stroll that barely saw Zalmi move out of third gear, and gave them a fifth consecutive win for the first time in their history.
Gladiators sent their bowlers on a hiding to nowhere by tasking them to defend a total so far below par. Haris and Babar set the tone with a brisk start in the powerplay, which put them so far ahead of the game they could afford Babar’s customary slowdown in the next few overs. This, however, felt more of a deliberate controlling of the tempo than any Gladiators’ success in shackling him. When Gladiators captain Saud Shakeel drew Haris into holing out, Babar picked up the pace once more to ease Mendis into his innings.
There wasn’t so much as a whiff of pressure that entered the ether of the National Stadium Karachi as far as Zalmi were concerned. The last few overs were merely a stage to wrap up formalities rather than any realistic attempt to inject jeopardy into the game, and though it only officially concluded in the 19th over, the stage for the win had been set long before.
It was the Zalmi bowlers who set that stage. After Babar elected to field first, his bowlers backed him up right from the first over. Iftikhar, who is enjoying a dream of a tournament with the ball, struck in his the game’s first over. The partnership between Shakeel and Rilee Rossouw that followed was perhaps the Gladiators’ best passage of play all game, but it was all too brief. They put on 35 in 23 balls, but as the bowlers’ wavered briefly, the fielders helped them out. A pinpoint throw from Farhan Yousaf at point sent Shakeel back on his way, and Zalmi wrested control of the powerplay back.
The momentum shifted decisively with the introduction of Muqeem. He trapped Rossouw on the crease and forced him into a drag-on, before frustrating Shamyl Hussain, who ended up mistiming one ineffectually to long-on. The innings was more stop than start for the best part of what followed as Gladiators remained well out of the vicinity of what would be a competitive score, with seam bowler Mohammad Basit chipping in with middle order wickets.
Once Hasan Nawaz fell for a scratchy 35-ball 37, there wasn’t nearly enough firepower for the death. Zalmi rounded out the innings with a majestic final over from Ali Raza that conceded just two runs off the bat. It would set Zalmi with one of their more straightforward tasks, one they completed with aplomb for their sixth win in seven.
Brief scores:
Peshawar Zalmi 156 for 2 in 18.3 overs (Mohammed Haris 35, Babar Azam 71*, Kusal Mendis 21, Aaron Hardie 18*; Alzarri Joseph 1-32, Saud Shakeel 1-23) beat Quetta Gladiators 154 all out in 20 overs (Saud Shakeel 16, Rilee Rossouw 26, Hasan Nawaz 37, Shamil Hussain 12, Khawaja Nafay 20, Tom Currann15; Iftikhar Ahmed 1-20, Sufiyan Muqeem 3-25, Mohammad Basit 3-36) by 8 wickets
[Cricinfo]
