Peshawar Zalmi have handed a massive 207-run target to Islamabad United in match 24 of the Paki-stan Super League’s (PSL) seventh edition, courtesy of Mohammad Haris’ sensational half-century.
United, who are without a full-strength team as their skipper Shadab Khan is out due to an injury, were put into the field by Zalmi captain Wahab Riaz.
Haris and Hazratullah Zazai opened the innings for Zalmi. One would expect Zazai to go rampant as he is an experienced batter having played at the international level, but he didn’t play a huge knock having been removed after scoring 13 runs.
It was Haris who stole the show by going ber-serk from the word go as he hit five sixes and seven fours in the boundary-laden knock at a strike rate of 218.75 which put Zalmi in a bossing position as they scored 116 runs in the first 10 overs.
His onslaught started in the early overs of Zalmi’s inning as they reached 74 runs in the powerplay, with Haris playing some unbelievable unorthodox shots to reach PSL’s second-fastest fifty. Islamabad are placed third on the points table with eight points from seven games. Zalmi also have eight points but they have played eight games and are currently placed at the fourth spot on the points table.
The match will take place under the lights of the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore at 7:30pm.
Playing XI
Peshawar Zalmi: Hazratullah Zazai, Ben Cutting, Mohammad Haris (wk), Shoaib Malik, Hussain Talat, Sherfane Rutherford, Wahab Riaz (c), Salman Irshad, Liam Livingstone, Usman Qadir, Yasir Khan
Islamabad United: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Mub-asir Khan, Danish Aziz, Liam Dawson, Asif Ali (c), Azam Khan (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Waqas Maqsood, Muhammad Musa, Marchant de Lange, Zahir Khan.—AP
