Peshawar Zalmi win their third game in a row to top the points table
Peshawar Zalmi 122 for 4 (Kohler-Cadmore 46, Hasan Ali 2-14) beat Islamabad United 118 (Hales 41, Riaz 4-17, Mahmood 3-12) by six wickets
In the Pakistan Super League, T20 cricket is a simple game: 22 men hit a ball around for three hours, and in the end, the chasing team wins.
On Saturday night in Karachi, the formula of winning the toss, choosing to bowl and winning the match worked for the tenth time out of ten this season, as Peshawar Zalmi won their third game in a row by bowling Islamabad United out for 118 and chasing the target down with 17 balls to spare.
United’s deep batting line-up had worked perfectly in their first two games, as they successfully chased targets of 151 and 197, but they struggled against Zalmi’s quicks Wahab Riaz and Saqib Mahmood and only briefly threatened to post a worthwhile total on a decent batting pitch. They raced to 38 for 1 after 4.2 overs thanks to a bright start from Alex Hales, and recovered from three quick wickets to reach 81 for 4 after 10, but they lost wickets too regularly and were bowled out at the start of the 18th over.
Zalmi started horribly in their run chase, losing both openers inside the first two overs and struggling to score against the new ball, but Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Shoaib Malik steadied them before Haider Ali’s cameo – including an 89-metre straight six off his first ball – put the game to bed.
Full report to follow…
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98
Source: ESPN Crickinfo