Karachi Kings defeated Peshawar Zalmi in Match 2 of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2020 this Friday (February 21), in a high-scoring encounter by just 10 runs to get their campaign off to a fine start.
Batting first, the Kings posted a massive total of 201/4 on a flat track at the National Stadium with Babar Azam (78) and captain Imad Wasim (50) playing the stand-out knocks, dominating their way through against the Zalmi bowling attack.
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In the run-chase, Peshawar got off to a poor start, losing early wickets. But Umar Akmal (43) kept his calm and helped resurrect the innings to an extent. Taking confidence from which, middle-order batsman Liam Livingstone (54) batted brilliantly for his brisk half-century, and along with Liam Dawson (22) and skipper Darren Sammy (30), took the Zalmi close.
However, Umaid Asif (2/23), Chris Jordan (2/39), Mohammad Amir (2/31) were yet able to save the day for the Kings.
Brief Scores:
Karachi Kings 201/4 in 20 overs (Babar Azam 78; Hasan Ali 2/52) beat Peshawar Zalmi 191/7 in 20 overs (Liam Livingstone 54; Umaid Asif 2/23) by 10 runs
In the Match 3 on the double-header day, Multan Sultans clinched a five-wicket victory over Lahore Qalandars at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
A terrific bowling performance helped the Sultans restrict the Qalandars to a modest total of 138/8, with spinners Imran Tahir (2/21), Moeen Ali (2/13) and medium-pacer Mohammad Ilyas (2/16) doing the bulk of the damage; Chris Lynn (39) and skipper Sohail Akhtar (34) made thirties but the rest of the Qalandars batting line-up struggled.
The Sultans, in response, were given a decent start by opener and captain Shan Masood (38) before middle-order batsmen Rilee Rossouw (32) and Shahid Afridi (21*) guided their team through.
Shaheen Afridi (1/18) did bowl a fine spell for Qalandars first up but the team's bowling unit never had enough runs to play around with.
Brief Scores:
Lahore Qalandars 138/8 in 20 overs (Chris Lynn 39; Imran Tahir 2/21) lost to Multan Sultans 142/5 in 16.1 overs (Shan Masood 38; Shaheen Afridi 1/18) by five wickets
