By Shakeel Ahmed
Rawalpindi: Shoaib Malik utilized his experience and scored 54 runs off 27 balls to lay down a solid foundation for Peshawar Zalmi to beat Quetta Gladiators by 30 runs.
Malik rescued Zalmi when they lost their openers for 39 runs. Imam-ul-Haq went after scoring seven while Kamran Akmal made 23 runs. Young Haider Ali supported his senior quite brilliantly and they both put 54 runs together to give Zalmi a strong stance.
Haider scored 39 runs off 24 balls including four boundaries and two sixes. Liam Livingstone and Lewis Gregory scored 12 and 19 runs respectively.
For Gladiators, Mohammad Husnain bagged four wickets while Sohail Khan and Ben Cutting took a wicket each.
Quetta Gladiators’ captain Sarfraz Ahmed has won the toss and decided to bowl first against Peshawar Zalmi in the 18th match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) season 5 at Pindi Stadium on Thursday.
“We will bowl first as its a fresh pitch and due factor comes in later on which will help us to chase the target,” Sarfraz said after winning the toss.
Wahab Riaz, the newly appointed captain of Zalmi, is confident to bounce back. “Our last match wasn’t good against Karachi Kings but its a new opportunity for us and we will try to post a good total on the scoreboard,” he said.
Zalmi made two changes by calling in Liam Dawson and Imam-ul-Haq in place of Carlos Brathwaite and Tom Banton. Whereas, Gladiators brought in Sohail Khan and Tymal Mills for Anwar Ali and Fawad Ahmed.
