Cricket: Kings survive Zalmi scare in thrilling PSL encounter

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Cricket: Kings survive  Zalmi scare in thrilling PSL encounter
Shoaib Malik held the Karachi Kings innings together with an unbeaten knock of 51 runs.

Sharjah - Karachi won by nine runs but not before Shahid Afridi and Sammy, had teamed up to vault back and dent the opposition, and take it to the wire

By James Jose

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Published: Sun 19 Feb 2017, 10:55 PM

Last updated: Mon 20 Feb 2017, 1:13 AM

The Karachi Kings made it two wins on the bounce, while Peshawar Zalmi suffered their second successive defeat in another dramatic contest of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL), at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, late on Sunday night.
The Karachi Kings won by nine runs but not before Shahid Afridi and Peshawar Zalmi captain Darren Sammy, also the former West Indies captain, had teamed up to vault back and dent the opposition, and take it to the wire.
Afridi and Sammy had given them a glimmer of hope with a defiant 70-run partnership for the seventh wicket, but it was not to be.
Afridi was there till the end with 18 needed off the last over, but he fell off the fourth ball, the skier taken by Chris Gayle.
Earlier, Peshawar Zalmi had begun the chase in right earnest, rattling away to 27 for no loss in three overs, a mirror image of Karachi Kings' score.
But two wickets in three balls from medium pacer Sohail Khan, who had come back into the team in place of Kashif Bhatti, saw both the openers Kamran Akmal and Tamim Iqbal being wiped out.
Iftikhar Ahmed, drafted into the team as a replacement for the out-of-form Mohammad Hafeez, was to go in the next over, to leave Peshawar Zalmi tottering at 33 for 3.
It was become 43 for four as Eoin Morgan, playing his last innings in the PSL, before the England limited-overs captain departed for the tour of the West Indies, fell for three.
Sohaib Maqsood and Shakib Al Hasan too were back in the dug-out soon enough as Peshawar Zalmi had dug themselves into a hole.
But Sammy and Afridi engaged in damage control before plotting a path. The duo kept Peshawar Zalmi in the hunt and brought the equation down to 71 needed from the last five overs.
Some lusty hits all over the park by both the men got Peshawar Zalmi closer and closer but the Karachi Kings finally made the inroad through Sohail Khan, who was impressive on the night. Sammy tried to swivel Sohail but was caught by his countryman Chris Gayle, the catch at short fine leg worth its weight in gold.
Earlier, the only mystery was to be who called right at the toss and there were no prizes for guessing what Sammy chose to do.
And the Karachi Kings took that invitation to conjure 174 for the loss of four wickets, in their allotment.
It was not a smooth ride on the road by any means with another low score for the 'Universal Boss' Chris Gayle.
But the Karachi Kings didn't let that affect them too much with Shoaib Malik holding it together with an unbeaten 51.
Ravi Bopara too played a good hand of 30 after opener Babar Azam had got proceedings off to start with a decent 46. Captain Kumar Sangakkara too was in there with a 28.
With Gayle struggling to get a foothold so far in the tournament, Sangakkara made a tactical decision to open with Azam and push the West Indian one-down.
And that seemed to have worked with the pair seeing off the Peshawar Zalmi attack to accumulate 72 runs for the opening wicket.
Azam had begun with two sumptuous and successive boundaries, although he was a tad lucky with the first one which was a China cut, off medium pacer Hasan Ali, off the second and third ball of the innings.
And he carried on the same vein, smacking Wahab Riaz for a boundary over mid-off and then a pulled six over midwicket.
Sangakkara, who was playing second fiddle until then, freed up his arms against his opposite number Sammy, who had brought himself on after having bowled just three overs in the tournament so far.
Sangakarra smoked Sammy for three consecutive boundaries - two beautiful flicks off his pads and then opening the face of the bat to glance it down to the third man fence.
Meanwhile, Azam looked good for a half-century but fell four runs short, firing left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan down Hasan Ali's throat at long-on.
Gayle arrived at the crease but before he and Sangakkara could cook something up, the latter was gobbled by Hasan Ali at long-off, off off-spinner Iftikhar Ahmed.
Gayle lasted all of nine balls but he did have a boundary from the 11 he made.
Shoaib Malik and Ravi Bopara then added 44 for the fourth wicket before the Englishman departed after a well-made 30.
Malik and Kieron Pollard put on an unbroken 40 for the fifth wicket, with Malik getting to his half-century with a pull off Riaz for a boundary.
james@khaleejtimes.com
 
 
SCOREBOARD
Karachi Kings
Azam c Hasan b Shakib 46
Sangakkara c Hasan b Ahmed 28
Gayle c Morgan b Ahmed 11
Malik not out 51
Bopara c Maqsood b Imran 30
Pollard not out 4
Extras (lb 4) 4
Total (4 wickets; 20 overs) 174 (8.70 runs per over)
Did not bat: Wasim, Sohail, Amir, Mir, Usman
Fall: 1-72 (Azam, 8.6 ov), 2-75 (Sangakkara, 10.2 ov), 3-90 (Gayle, 12.2 ov), 4-134 (Bopara, 16.6 ov)
Bowling: Hasan 3-0-32-0, Riaz 4-0-32-0, Shakib 2-0-14-1, Imran 4-0-42-1, Sammy 1-0-16-0, Afridi 4-0-26-0, Iftikhar 2-0-8-2.
 
Peshawar Zalmi
Tamim c Sangakkara b Sohail 16
Kamran c Bopara b Sohail 14
Iftikhar c Sangakkara b Wasim 1
Morgan c Bopara b Malik 3
Shakib c Bopara b Usman 18
Maqsood c Pollard b Usman 5
Sammy c Gayle b Sohail 34
Afridi c Gayle b Mir 54
Wahab b Usman 2
Hasan c Bopara b Mir 10
Imran not out 0
Extras (lb 6, nb 2) 8
Total (all out; 19.5 overs) 165
Fall: 1-32 (Kamran, 3.4 ov), 2-33 (Tamim, 3.6 ov), 3-33 (Iftikhar, 4.2 ov), 4-43 (Morgan, 7.4 ov), 5-58 (Maqsood, 9.3 ov), 6-69 (Shakib, 11.2 ov), 7-139 (Sammy, 17.5 ov), 8-146 (Wahab, 18.4 ov), 9-165 (Afridi, 19.4 ov), 10-165 (Hasan, 19.5 ov)
Bowling: Wasim 3-0-24-1, Amir 4-0-41-0, Sohail 4-1-28-3, Mir 3.5-0-28-2, Malik 1-0-6-1, Usman 4-0-32-3.


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