Multan Sultans won their maiden title on first attempt © PSL
Multan Sultans 206 for 4 (Maqsood 65*, Rossouw 50, Gul 2-26) beat Peshawar Zalmi 159 for 9 (Malik 48, Muzarabani 2-26) by 47 runs
In the final for the first time, Multan Sultans completed one of the great turnarounds in a franchise cricket season to lift their maiden title by comprehensively defeating Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL 2021 final.
Two blistering half-centuries from Sohaib Maqsood and Rilee Rossouw made them favourites at the halfway mark, after which regular wickets at key intervals saw off the Zalmi challenge. Although the tournament’s highest wicket-taker Shahnawaz Dahani finished wicketless, the others stepped up on the final day. Blessing Muzarabani and Imran Khan took two wickets each at economies of under seven, and the ageless Imran Tahir collected three.
Sultans started the second leg of the PSL fifth on the points table – having lost four of their first five matches – but led by their captain Mohammad Rizwan, went on to win four of the next five to finish the league stage second. They then swatted the Islamabad United challenge in the first qualifier and the win in the final was the crowning glory in their magnificent UAE leg of the season.
For Zalmi, it was the third time in the last four seasons that they faltered in the final. They failed to capitalise after keeping Sultans quiet for the first half of the first innings, and their hero of the two eliminators Hazratullah Zazai faced only five balls. Those factors, coupled with the lack of a big partnership a la Maqsood and Rossouw, resulted in the 47-run defeat for Wahab Riaz’s men.
More to follow…
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo