RAWALPINDI: On Friday night, a large crowd of cricket fans flocked to the Pindi Cricket Stadium. Their passion for Babar Azam had brought them to the location, as their shouts implied. The roofless arena echoed with “Babar, Babar,” and the skipper of Peshawar Zalmi, the most beloved cricket player in Pakistan, did not let fans down.
With coaches Darren Sammy and Umar Gul providing support from the sidelines, Babar displayed skill both at the bat and as captain as Zalmi defeated Quetta Gladiators by 76 runs in the HBL Pakistan Super League match.
As he typically does, the former captain of Pakistan granted Zalmi a start at bat, which allowed him to negate the hat-trick of Quetta spinner Akeal Hosein.
Babar used Saim Ayub’s so-called “part-time” off-spin to break Quetta’s back at a stage when it changed the game in Zalmi’s favor till the conclusion, helping them to defend a 196-8 total that featured his 53 off 29 balls.
With the victory, Zalmi advanced to the second spot in the PSL league stage standings and guaranteed their spot in the playoffs, becoming the first team to get past the first round in each of the franchise tournament’s nine seasons. Meanwhile, Quetta dropped to fourth position.
Quetta attacked the target with aggression right away, as their opening pair of Jason Roy and Saud Shakeel struck some beautiful sixes off bowler Naveen-ul-Haq. However, both players were out before the fielding restrictions ended, leaving the scorecard at 56-2.
Quetta’s run-scoring was halted by the loss of the openers, so Babar made a wise option in calling in Saim to bowl his off-spin at that precise moment, when Khawaja Nafay and left-handed Rilee Rossouw were both at the wicket.
Rossouw attempted to clear midwicket after Saim’s flighted delivery, but Aamer Jamal caught the ball safely. Nafay became alarmed upon witnessing his captain and partner fall at the other end, and he eventually located the fielder on the leg-side two balls later.
Around the midway point, Quetta was trailing 76-4.
Laurie Evans, making her debut, was the next to go when Rovman Powell made a running catch off Aamer at long-on. In rapid succession, Hosein and Omair bin Yousuf were bowled out by pacers Luke Wood and Naveen-ul-Haq, thus ending the match.
Quetta lost the toss and chose to bat first, and Zalmi got off to a great start with openers Babar and Saim.
All of them were utterly damaging while they were on the crease. But Babar stayed longer than Saim, and he went on to score another fifty in the PSL.
But before Quetta took control, Zalmi was only kept on top by Babar and Saim, the incredible left-hander who was pillaging the Quetta bowlers for a 12-ball thirty. Hosein’s hat-trick prevented the team from giving up an even higher score.
A wrist flick for six off pacemaker and a chip over the in-field for four Before Saim extended his arms and hammered Mohammad Amir over midwicket for six, Sohail Khan watched Babar and Zalmi get going. Samir was then handed a second chance when Roy dropped him at mid-off in the third over, frustrating Amir.
After celebrating the reprieve by hitting two big sixes off Sohail in the next over, Saim turned into Quetta’s first wicket taker.
But Babar didn’t stop there. In the fifth over, against Mohammad Hasnain, he demonstrated his class with three smooth boundaries, pushing Zalmi to 70-1.
After losing two wickets in short succession to Haseebullah Khan and Muhammad Haris, Quetta was trailing 103-3 at the midway point.
After counterattacking with two fours off Hasnain’s pace, Tom Kohler-Cadmore took on spinner Abrar Ahmed for a boundary and a massive six. To reach his fifty in 29 balls, Babar blasted the spinner for four more and flicked beautifully for another boundary.
That was all for the former captain of Pakistan, though, as Hosein trapped him leg before wicket with the very next delivery he faced.
Hosein gave up just five runs in that over, and as the Englishman fell to Hasnain, Kohler-Cadmore, who was starting to gather confidence with 30 off 19 against his record, felt the strain.
When Hosein came back to bowl the sixteenth over, something terrible happened. Aamer’s outside edge was nicked by the Guyanese, allowing wicketkeeper Evans to make a difficult catch. Aamer played Hosein onto his stumps, and Wood edged one to Rossouw in the slips, followed by Mehran Mumtaz. Zalmi was reduced to eight wickets for 157 after the hat-trick, but Rovman Powell’s 28 from 25 balls salvaged Zalmi a score that was more than sufficient for them.
