Peshawar Zalmi, Islamabad United in battle to stay alive

LAHORE: Two former PSL champions — Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi -- will be up against each other in the first eliminator of season eight here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday (today) evening with both the teams looking to edge out their opponent for another title.

Islamabad United are a bit unlucky to be playing the eliminator instead of the qualifier as they and Multan Sultans had equal points but they were placed third because of a small run-rate difference. Their defeats against Lahore Qalandars and Zalmi dented their progress.

The performance of Peshawar Zalmi, however, has not been as good as the team seems on paper. Peshawar Zalmi entered the play-offs having won the least number of league games.

Peshawar won five and lost five of their fixtures, but their most recent victory came against today’s opponents here, whom they defeated by 13 runs this past Sunday.

The thing worrying Islamabad will be the runs their bowlers have been conceding. Their batter Azam Khan scoring at will will be the key for them.

Colin Munro is the top run-scorer for Islamabad with 294 runs at a strike rate of 176. He has struck 20 sixes and 22 fours. Fazalhaq Farooqi has been the best bowler for Islamabad United and has picked up 10 wickets while bowling at an average of 15 and an economy rate of 7.93. Hasan Ali has taken 12 wickets but has been quite expensive.

Zalmi have in their lineup the world’s best batter in Babar Azam who has piled 416 runs at a strike rate of 146. He has struck 9 sixes and 47 fours. Tom Kohler-Cadmore has also made 309 runs at a strike rate of 172.

Wahab Riaz has been the best bowler for Peshawar Zalmi and has picked up 9 wickets while bowling at an average of 35 and an economy rate of 9.20.

Islamabad United: Shadab Khan (c), Paul Stirling, Alex Hales, Sohaib Maqsood, Asif Ali, Rassie van der Dussen, Colin Munro, Hassan Nawaz, Moeen Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Mubasir Khan, Tom Curran, Mohammad Waseem Jr, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Azam Khan (wk), Fazalhaq Farooqi, Zafar Gohar, Rumman Raees, Zeeshan Zameer, Hasan Ali, Abrar Ahmed, Tymal Mills, Gus Atkinson

Peshawar Zalmi: Babar Azam (c), Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Wahab Riaz, Arshad Iqbal, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Haris (wk), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Aamer Jamal, Saim Ayub, Salman Irshad, Haseebullah Khan, Khurram Shahzad, Richard Gleeson, Peter Hatzoglou Sufyan Muqeem, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Usman Qadir, Jimmy Neesham, Haris Sohail.