LAHORE: Peshawar Zalmi defeated Quetta Gladiators by 24 runs in crucial 22nd match of the HBL-PSL-7 here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday.

Batting first, Peshawar Zalmi scored 185 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. In reply, Quetta Gladiators could score 161 for the loss of 8 wickets.

Zalmi’s Shoaib Malik and Hussain Talat’s fifties and late hitting by Ben Cutting in a fiery 36-run knock helped the team to score 185 runs.

Peshawar Zalmi’s skipper Wahab Riaz had won the toss and elected to bat first, but Quetta’s pacer Naseem Shah did the early damage with two wickets in one over of Hazratullah Zazai and Liam Livingstone to leave Zalmi at 2-6. However, experienced all-rounder Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Haris forged a 52-run stand to hold the inning. Malik showed his class and experience during the 58 run inning of 41 balls with eight fours. He also laid a good 73-run stand with Hussain Talat who also showed good performance with bat. While in the late over, Cutting launched an onslaught with four sixes and one four in a blistering 36 run inning off just 14 balls.

For Quetta, Naseem was brilliant with the bowl as he registered figures of 4-27 in four overs. Shahzad, Iftikhar, and Mudassar snared one scalp each. Both the teams have six points from seven games each, but Gladiators are ahead of Zalmi based on net run rate (NRR) and currently placed at the fourth position in the points table.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022