Pakistan’s national team skipper Babar Azam is taking on his former team Karachi Kings, in his new team Peshawar Zalmi’s first match of Pakistan Super League (PSL 8).
Karachi Kings batting
Peshawar Zalmi’s former captain Wahab Riaz struck for his team in the first over as he dismissed Sharjeel Khan for a duck.
Matthew Wade, famous for hitting three sixes to Shaheen Shah Afridi in 2021 T20 World Cup semifinal, started his PSL career aggressively as he hit Khurram Shahzad for two fours and a six in the second over.
Karachi Kings scored 34 runs in three overs but then James Neesham came into the action and dismissed Wade for 23 runs.
The next batter Qasim Akram also scored only seven runs and was dismissed by James Neesham.
After losing four wickets for 48 runs, Karachi Kings fought hard as Shoaib Malik and Imad Wasim scored fifties but at the end they fell short by just two runs.
Imad Wasim remained not out on 80 runs whereas Shoaib Malik scored 52 runs for Karachi Kings.
Peshawar Zalmi batting
Peshawar Zalmi got off to an aggressive start as Muhammad Haris hit Muhammad Amir for a boundary off the first ball.
Babar Azam also smacked one towards boundary few balls later as they scored 11 runs in the first over.
Muhammad Haris also welcomed Mir Hamza with a boundary but Mir Hamza struck next ball, as he took a review for LBW and got successful.
New batter Saim Ayub got a single off the first ball but unfortunately got run out off the next ball as Mir Hamza got a slight touch to Babar Azam’s straight drive.
Tom Kohler Cadmore was the new batter, who smacked the Karachi Kings skipper Imad Wasim for three sixes in the fifth over and helped Peshawar Zalmi reach 50 in just five overs.
The English batter kept going with the same momentum and also welcomed experienced Imran Tahir with a sixer in the eighth over.
Babar Azam rotated the strike perfectly, to frustrate his former team and guided his partner.
Tom Kohler Cadmore reached his half-century with another six to Imran Tahir, on just 28 balls with the help of five sixes.
