Multan Sultans Reach 4th Straight Final of the HBLPSL

Muhammad Waqas

Peshawar Zalmi: 146/7 (20) | Babar 46(42), Cadmore 24(24) | Usama 2/16, Jordan 2/28   

Multan Sultans: 147/3 (18.3) | Yasir 54(37), Usman 36*(28) | Mehran 1/28, Jamal 1/23

Multan Sultans continues their dominance and have qualified for the fourth straight Pakistan Super League final. They beat Peshawar Zalmi by seven wickets in a one-sided qualifier on Thursday.

Opting to bat first, Peshawar Zalmi’s innings stuttered from the outset. Multan’s bowling attack, showcasing impressive depth, restricted them to a below-par total of 146/7. David Willey continued his impressive form, claiming crucial wicket of Saim Ayub in the powerplay, extending his tally of powerplay wickets in HBLPSL9 to eight.

Mohammad Haris and Babar Azam provided some resistance with a 47-run partnership, but Haris fell to Mohammad Ali on the last ball of the powerplay. With the dismissal of Haseeb Ullah, Peshawar found themselves in trouble at 57/3 after 8 overs. Later, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Babar put together a 45-run stand off 34 balls, before Chris Jordan dismissed Babar with perfect yorker. Wickets started to tumble and despite Luke Wood’s 14 runs off 7, Peshawar Zalmi could not reach even at 150-mark.

Usama Mir emerged as pick of the bowlers, grabbing two wickets for just 16 runs in his four-over spell. Jordan claimed two scalps, while Abbas Afridi, Willey and Ali dismissed one batter each.

In reply, Multan Sultans’ openers Yasir Khan and Mohammad Rizwan laid a solid foundation with a 61-run partnership. Yasir smashed a well-made 54 off 37 balls, while Rizwan struggled for fluency before departing for 15. However, his dismissal hardly dented Sultans’ momentum. In the absence of Afghanistan pacer Naveen Ul Haq, Peshawar Zalmi bowlers struggled to take wickets.

Usman Khan continued his sublime form, scoring an unbeaten 36 runs off 28 balls. Iftikhar Ahmed quick-fire 22 off just 8 balls finished the game for the Sultans. Multan Sultans secured a comfortable victory with nine balls to spare.

Aamir jamal bowled an economical spell of 1/23 (3), while Mehran Mumtaz and Salman Irshad finished their figure at 1/28 (4) and 1/28 (3) respectively.

Yasir Khan was player of the match for his match-winning half-century.

Peshawar Zalmi will face the winner of the first eliminator to compete for a spot in the final.