Multan Sultans extended their winning streak in the Pakistan Super League to six matches with a Thursday’s victory over Peshawar Zalmi . Sultans dominated Zalmi, thumping them by a margin of 42 runs as the tournament resumed for the Lahore leg.
With their win, the Sultans consolidated their position at the top of the six-team Pakistan Super League points table and piled on the problems for Zalmi, who are languishing at fifth with two wins and four losses.
As it happened, Zalmi won the toss and opted to bowl first, hoping to restrict the Sultans down to a manageable score. But their hopes were dashed by the in-form opposition batting unit where opener Shan Masood top-scored with a brilliant 68 off 49 balls.
Masood shared a solid opening stand of 98 runs with skipper and star wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan (34). Their separation brought to the park a resurgent Tim David, who also blasted 34 off 18 deliveries to put Sultans in a position of strength.
The good work done by Masood, in combination with Rizwan and David, allowed Sultans to post a daunting score of 182/7 in their 20 overs despite suffering a few middle-order stutters.
Most of the Zalmi bowlers had a difficult outing, but in the context of the high-scoring fixture, captain Wahab Riaz (2/34) and Salman Irshad (2/34) bowled reasonably well.
In the run-chase, things went downhill for Zalmi against a collective bowling performance by the Sultans, who had Blessing Muzarabani (3/18) and Khushdil Shah (3/26) leading the pack with their crucial three-fers. These two were ably supported at the task by Shahnawaz Dahani’s two for 35 and miserly spells from Abbas Afridi (1/23) and Imran Tahir (1/25).
Zalmi struggled for most parts of the second half, and it required a fighting 44 off 31 balls from their veteran middle-order batter Shoaib Malik for them to even post 140 all out in response.
Brief scores
Multan Sultans 182/7 in 20 overs (Masood 68, David 34; Irshad 2/34) beat Peshawar Zalmi 140/10 in 19.3 overs (Malik 44; Muzarabani 3/18, Shah 3/26) by 42 runs
