Gladiators beat Zalmi by six wickets in PSL clash

DUBAI: The Quetta Gladiators defeated Peshawar Zalmi by 6 wickets in the third match of the Pakistan Super League played in Dubai on Friday.

Zalmi had set a 156-run target for Quetta Gladiators to win the match. Umar Akmal hit 75 off 50 deliveries. He remained not out. Gladiators captain Sarfraz Ahmed scored 37 runs off 29 deliveries.

In the first innings, Kamran Akmal and Misbahul Haq scored 49 each off 36 and 32 deliveries respectively. Misbah remained not out. Sohaib Maqsood scored 26 runs for his side off 29 deliveries. Mohammad Nawaz dismissed two Zalmi batsmen, while Ghulam Mudassir and Irfan Junior took one wicket each.

The Gladiators’ Captain Sarfraz Ahmed earlier won the toss and put rivals Zalmi to bat first. In the first doubleheader of the tournament, Quetta Gladiators led by Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed was looking to exact revenge against the Darren Sammy-led Peshawar Zalmi who had knocked them out by just one run in last year’s eliminator.

Gladiators were banking on local talent in the form of batsman Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad, who along with Mohammad Asghar and Jalat Khan, added much needed power to the Gladiators squad.

For Gladiators, Australian all-rounder Shane Watson was the key foreign player. However, they were without the services of Windies spinner Sunil Narine who sustained a finger injury in the recently concluded Bangladesh Premier League, ruling him out of the early stages of the PSL. As a cover, Gladiators roped in Somerset’s Max Waller on a short-term deal for the injured Narine.

They were also bolstered by the addition of Windies T20 stalwart Dwayne Bravo and Australian leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed, who came into the tournament after a decent showing in the Big Bash League for Sydney Thunder.

The Peshawar Zalmi, on the other hand, were boosted by the addition of experienced batsman Misbah-ul-Haq who was previously attached to the Islamabad United. Hasan Ali and Imam-ul-Haq had also added star power to the Zalmi squad. They were further strengthened with the addition of West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard.