Valiant Sammy cameo takes Zalmi home against Gladiators

Sharjah:-Peshawar Zalmi 143-5 (Tamim 36, Watson 1-16) beat Quetta Gladiators 141-8 (Watson 47, Asif 2-18) by six wickets.

Skipper Sammy—who picked injury in the first innings of the match—hammered 16 runs of just four deliveries to take Zalmi home after a brief collapse.

Following Akmal and Smith departure, calm Tamim and experienced Hafeez were guiding Peshawar Zalmi to a comfortable win over Quetta before a short collapse made things difficult in the middle for Zalmi’s batsmen.

Both added 54 runs for third wicket.

Smith also made useful contributions with the bat by scoring 23 runs on just 14 deliveries. Sammy, with some fierce hitting in the end, took his team home and also earned two useful points.

Earlier, in the tenth fixture of Pakistan Super League, Peshawar Zalmi won the toss and opted to bowl first against the Quetta Gladiators as the latter eye top position on the points table.

Wickets in regular intervals and and impressing fielding show have kept things under control for Peshawar Zalmi as Gladiators’ batsmen found it hard to score runs in the middle.

Despite Watson and Rossouw blitz, Quetta managed to post only 141 at the cost of eight wickets in the allotted 20 overs.

In the first quarter, Zalmi bowlers proved the decision of their captain right.

With boundaries not coming easily, Sameen Gul dismissed out-of-form Asad Shafiq who managed just 9 runs on 10 balls.

As the pressure kept on soaring, Watson looked to break the circle by targeting lose deliveries. In the eighth over, Watson hammered three huge 6s while 22 runs came in that over.

Just when things started to look good for the Gladiators, skipper Sammy removed Amin on a length ball. The left-hand batsman only managed to secure 11 runs from 16 balls.

To add insult to the injuries, Watson was removed by left-arm spinner Khalid Usman in the very next over.

After Watson’s departure, Rossouw hit some massive 6s to lift the morale but he was eventually dismissed on 37. Skipper Sarfraz—who scored 17 runs—was clean bowled Wahab Riaz.

Sammy, Wahab and Asif picket two wickets each to keep things under control as Gladiators were curtailed to 141.

Zalmi squad: Tamim Iqbal, Kamran Akmal, DR Smith, Mohammad Hafeez, Sabbir Rehman, Khalid Usman, DJ Sammy, Sameen Gul, Umaid Asif, Wahab Riaz

Gladiators squad: Asad Shafiq, SR Watson, Umar Amin, KP Pieterson, Mohammad Nawaz, Sarfraz Ahmed, RR Rossouw, JW Hastings, Hassan Khan, Anwar Ali, Rahat Ali