Hafeez-inspired Lahore Qalandars put Peshawar Zalmi out of PSL

KARACHI: Mohammad Hafeez hammered a solid 74 not out as Lahore Qalandars put former champions Peshawar Zalmi out of the event when they conquered them by five wickets in the first eliminator of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) here at National Stadium on Saturday night.

Chasing 171, Lahore required 20 runs off the last two overs and they managed those runs in the penultimate over bowled by Zalmi’s skipper Wahab Riaz. Wahab was hit by Hafeez for a four before David Wiese (16*) smacked him for two big successive sixes to bring in a fantastic win for Lahore.

Hafeez-Wiese partnership for the sixth wicket produced 41 runs.

Hafeez, who hit two sixes and nine fours in his 46-ball superb knock, earlier added 55 for the fourth wicket with Ben Dunk (20) before the latter was dismissed by Mohammad Imran, caught by Carlos Brathwaite at cover. Dunk hit two fours from 19 balls.

Lahore were 88-4 in 11.1 overs at that stage.

Hafeez, who scored his second fifty of this edition, was also involved in a 42-run fifth-wicket association with Samit Patel (20), who hammered three fours from 17 balls.

Lahore found themselves in a difficult position when English pacer Saqib Mahmood got rid of both their openers Fakhar Zaman (6) and Tamim Iqbal (18) in the first over of his first spell.

Tamim, the Bangladeshi left-hander, hammered one six and two fours in his ten-ball fiery knock.

Saqib also removed Lahore’s skipper Sohail Akhtar (7) off the first ball of his second over to strengthen Zalmi’s position.

Saqib was the pick of the bowlers with 3-41 in four overs. Rahat Ali (1-24) and Imran (1-16) were the other successful bowlers.

After being invited to bat, Peshawar Zalmi had a poor start when Shaheen Afridi bowled in-form Haider Ali for a first-ball duck off the second ball of the innings. Sohaib Maqsood then joined Imam but he also failed to play a major knock. Sohaib skied a delivery from Dilbar Hussain, held nicely by Fakhar Zaman after he had hit one six and one four in his 17-ball 16. Zalmi were 32-2 in the fifth over.

Wiese got rid of Imam-ul-Haq for 24. Imam wanted to smash it over mid-wicket, could not middle it and it went up with the bowler himself taking a nice catch after covering a long distance. Imam, who kept wickets in the absence of injured Kamran Akmal, hit two sixes from 19 balls.