Islamabad United 176 for 3 (Sharjeel 117) beat Peshawar Zalmi 126 (Kamran 45, Khalid 4-20) by 50 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Sharjeel Khan brought up his hundred off 50 balls © PCB
Sharjeel Khan scored the first hundred of the Pakistan Super League to charge Islamabad United to the final of the tournament, with a comprehensive 50-run win against Peshawar Zalmi. Sharjeel’s 50-ball hundred powered Islamabad to 176 for 3 and left-arm spinner Imran Khalid‘s four-for made sure Peshawar were bowled out for 126 with two overs to spare.
Put in to bat, Islamabad saw a massive opening stand of 108 in 13.1 overs, only because of Sharjeel’s knock. Dwayne Smith, the other opener, struggled to get bat on ball during his stay of 37 balls to score 19 runs without a single boundary. Sharjeel, meanwhile, was in sparkling form and started out by targeting the leg side to help his team to 49 runs after eight overs.
In the ninth over, Sharjeel unleashed two sixes and a four against left-arm spinner Mohammad Asghar and attacked Shahid Afridi too in the next over to bring up his fifty. The most eventful over, though, was the 14th in which Shaun Tait dismissed Smith and Brad Haddin off consecutive deliveries but Kamran Akmal dropped Khalid Latif to deprive Tait of a hat-trick. Sharjeel then struck the next two balls of the over for a four and six.
He brought up his hundred, studded with 12 fours and eight sixes, in style with a straight six in the 16th over and helped Islamabad score 46 in the last five overs. He was run-out for 117 in the last over of the innings which saw the next-best score of 28 from Latif.
Peshawar’s main source of resistance was opener Kamran Akmal’s knock of 45 from 32 balls as the next four batsmen scored only in single digits. Peshawar started slow in the Powerplay and were dented when Samuel Badree dismissed Dawid Malan in the fourth over. Kamran kept the score ticking till the 11th over before Khalid struck.
Khalid removed Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran in consecutive overs, and Brad Hodge and Darren Sammy in the same over – the 13th – to reduce Peshawar to 80 for 5. The required run rate had shot up over 13 per over and Afridi provided his team with a few late strikes, but it was not enough. Kamran and Afridi were the only Peshawar players to reach double-figures as the other nine batsmen could manage only 35 runs together. Khalid finished with 4 for 20 from his three overs and Andre Russell took three lower-order wickets, including Afridi’s, to end with 3 for 37.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo