Quetta beat Peshawar by 10 runs, qualify for PSL final
KARACHI (92 News) – Quetta Gladiators beat Peshawar Zalmi by 10 runs and qualified for Pakistan Super League season final match on Wednesday.
What a finish. Quetta Gladiators have held on. With two part-timers, and one spinner who's lost a tooth. You don't usually do that in T20 cricket. But they have and they go through to the final. Shane Watson with a massive, massive contribution towards that.
Destroyed Zalmi at the start of the batting innings and returned selflessly at the end to keep Zalmi quiet yet again. Bowling after nearly a year and with hardly any legs to take half his normal run-up, he's pulled it off for them. What a player.
They have reached the PSL final for the third time and are looking for their maiden title while the losers Peshawar Zalmi still have a chance as they will play in the Eliminator-2.
Chasing a daunting target of 187, Peshawar could score 176 for the loss of seven wickets in reply to Quetta's 186/6.
Captain Darren Sammy (45) and Kieron Pollard (44) were the top scorers for the Zalmy. They added 83 runs for the sixth wicket after their team was reeling at 90 for five.
Sammy hit five sixes and two boundaries in his brief innings of 21 balls while Pollard hit six fours and one six in his 22-ball innings.
For the Gladiators, medium-pacer Mohammad Hasnain captured two wickets.
Earlier, Quetta Gladiators set 187-run target for Peshawar Zalmi. They wanted 180, and they've got 186. Quetta were pulled back by Zalmi's two left-arm quicks, but this is still a very decent total. Shane Watson was scintillating up front, bringing out the peak of his glorious repertoire of shots.
Was near-impossible to bowl to as he put up 111 with an impressive Ahsan Ali. But their wickets in a short burst for Zalmi took the momentum out of the innings. We'll see how the chase goes shortly.
Prolific scorer Shane Watson played a brilliant innings as he top scored for Quetta with 71. This was his fourth half-century he has made in the tournament. He struck six sixes and five fours in his 43-ball innings.
Shane was well supported by Ahsan Ali, who scored 46 off 32 balls with two sixes and four boundaries. Both added 111 runs for the second wicket and guided their team to make 186 for six in 20 overs.
Left-arm fast bowler Wahab Riaz claimed two wickets for 26 runs for Peshawar Zalmi.
Shane Watson neutralised the Quetta Gladiators’ early breakthrough with his fiery half-century against Peshawar Zalmi at the Pakistan Super League's qualifier in National Staidum, Karachi.
Zalmi's Tymal Mills with a thundering yorker bowled opener Ahmad Shehzad on the very first ball of his over - quashing the batsman's aspirations of a steady comeback in the national team.
Former Pakistan skipper Misbah ul Haq is included in Zalmi's playing-11 while Ahsan Ali has made a comeback for the Gladiators in place of Anwar Ali.
The clash that is guaranteed to test nerves. The winning team is going straight into the final of the tournament on Sunday, March 17.
Peshawar Zalmi have won the toss and elected to field first against Quetta Gladiators. Peshawar Zalmi’s Daren Sammy won the toss and chose to field first.
Playoffs: Table toppers Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators are playing match and the winner will directly qualify for the big final against the winner of Eliminator 2.
Quetta Gladiators and one-time champions Peshawar Zalmi will square off in the qualifiers of the Pakistan Super League 2019 at the National Stadium in Karachi on Wednesday with both captains promising to fight till the last ball.
Led by Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, Quetta have finished runners-up in 2016 and 2017, while Peshawar outlasted them in the third vs fourth eliminator in 2018. Interestingly, every time the margin of victory was one-run.
This proves no team is ready to give up until the last-run as the winner will feature in the sell-out March 17 final. The losing side will have another opportunity to qualify for the final when they will meet the winner of Thursday’s Eliminator between Karachi Kings and Islamabad United on Friday.
The Quetta-Peshawar rivalry began in 2016 when both the sides shared a match each in the first round, before Gladiators won the war of Qualifier when medium-pacer Aizaz Cheema took two wickets and conceded a single off the last-ball as Peshawar failed to chase down a small target of 134 runs.
Peshawar won one of the league matches in 2017, while the other was rained-off in Sharjah before another qualifier went to Quetta, this time too Peshawar falling short by one-run in pursuit of a 201-run target. On that day, Hassan Ali was run-out when two runs were needed off the last-ball.
But Peshawar had the last laugh, clinching the final and the title with a big 58-run victory against a depleted Quetta, who were without their top foreign players.
They again shared a league match each in 2018, before Peshawar snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by one-run in the Eliminator in Lahore.
Needing 25 runs off the last over, Quetta were brought within a stroke of victory by Anwar Ali who hammered three sixes and a boundary off spinner Liam Dawson. But, needing three for victory, Anwar’s partner Mir Hamza was run-out as the batsmen tried to take a second run.
This year Quetta has an edge, winning both their league games by six and eight-wicket margins, respectively leaving the head-to-head in their favour with six wins, five defeats and one no-result in 12 contests.
Shane was well supported by Ahsan Ali, who scored 46 off 32 balls with two sixes and four boundaries. Both added 111 runs for the second wicket and guided their team to make 186 for six in 20 overs.
Left-arm fast bowler Wahab Riaz claimed two wickets for 26 runs for Peshawar Zalmi.
Shane Watson neutralised the Quetta Gladiators’ early breakthrough with his fiery half-century against Peshawar Zalmi at the Pakistan Super League's qualifier in National Staidum, Karachi.
Zalmi's Tymal Mills with a thundering yorker bowled opener Ahmad Shehzad on the very first ball of his over - quashing the batsman's aspirations of a steady comeback in the national team.
Former Pakistan skipper Misbah ul Haq is included in Zalmi's playing-11 while Ahsan Ali has made a comeback for the Gladiators in place of Anwar Ali.
The clash that is guaranteed to test nerves. The winning team is going straight into the final of the tournament on Sunday, March 17.
Peshawar Zalmi have won the toss and elected to field first against Quetta Gladiators. Peshawar Zalmi’s Daren Sammy won the toss and chose to field first.
Playoffs: Table toppers Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators are playing match and the winner will directly qualify for the big final against the winner of Eliminator 2.
Quetta Gladiators and one-time champions Peshawar Zalmi will square off in the qualifiers of the Pakistan Super League 2019 at the National Stadium in Karachi on Wednesday with both captains promising to fight till the last ball.
Led by Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, Quetta have finished runners-up in 2016 and 2017, while Peshawar outlasted them in the third vs fourth eliminator in 2018. Interestingly, every time the margin of victory was one-run.
This proves no team is ready to give up until the last-run as the winner will feature in the sell-out March 17 final. The losing side will have another opportunity to qualify for the final when they will meet the winner of Thursday’s Eliminator between Karachi Kings and Islamabad United on Friday.
The Quetta-Peshawar rivalry began in 2016 when both the sides shared a match each in the first round, before Gladiators won the war of Qualifier when medium-pacer Aizaz Cheema took two wickets and conceded a single off the last-ball as Peshawar failed to chase down a small target of 134 runs.
Peshawar won one of the league matches in 2017, while the other was rained-off in Sharjah before another qualifier went to Quetta, this time too Peshawar falling short by one-run in pursuit of a 201-run target. On that day, Hassan Ali was run-out when two runs were needed off the last-ball.
But Peshawar had the last laugh, clinching the final and the title with a big 58-run victory against a depleted Quetta, who were without their top foreign players.
They again shared a league match each in 2018, before Peshawar snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by one-run in the Eliminator in Lahore.
Needing 25 runs off the last over, Quetta were brought within a stroke of victory by Anwar Ali who hammered three sixes and a boundary off spinner Liam Dawson. But, needing three for victory, Anwar’s partner Mir Hamza was run-out as the batsmen tried to take a second run.
This year Quetta has an edge, winning both their league games by six and eight-wicket margins, respectively leaving the head-to-head in their favour with six wins, five defeats and one no-result in 12 contests.
