Multan beat Zalmi

MULTAN: Shan Masood’s men gave the home fans a night to remember on PSL 2020’s debut night in Multan as a rip-roaring bowling performance set up a simple chase iced by Rilee Rossouw’s unbeaten 49 in a six-wicket win against Peshawar Zalmi. M Irfan had Tom Banton dropped at slip by James Vince on the first ball of the match, but it was just about the only misstep on the night by Multan in the field. Banton fell five balls later driving Irfan to Shahid Afridi at extra cover and the Multan pacers continued to rip through the Peshawar line-up, aided by Sohail Tanvir’s four-wicket haul, to eventually bowl out the visitors for just 123 in 18.3 overs.

In a deja vu moment, Darren Sammy dropped the first ball of the Multan chase at slip when James Vince edged a drive off Hasan Ali, only for the bowler to have Vince caught at mid-on by the end of the over. Whereas Peshawar were 41 for 4 at one stage, Multan slipped to a near-identical 47 for 4 in the seventh over when Zeeshan Ashraf cut Wahab Riaz to Banton at backward point.

But that was where the similarities between the two innings ceased. Rossouw got Multan back on track before he was slowed down with a hip injury after getting pinged by Wahab to end the 12th over. He was then dropped in the 14th on 46 by Livingstone at deep cover off Mohammad Amir Khan, the last sniff Peshawar had of an unlikely fightback.

From there, Khushdil Shah helped send the home fans home with happy hearts by smashing a no-ball by Amir Khan through mid-off for four before clubbing a slower ball on the free hit 20 yards over the long-on rope for six to end the 14th. Another six yanked flat over square leg off Wahab in the 15th by Khushdil put Multan one stroke away from victory. It was sealed with a single down the ground by Rossouw, clinching a mostly one-sided contest

Brief scores: Multan Sultans 124 for 4 (Rossouw 49*, Shah 43*, Riaz 2-36) beat Peshawar Zalmi 123 (Ali 47, Tanvir 4-13, Ilyas 2-23) by six wickets. -Agencies