PSL 2020: Multan Sultans beat Peshawar Zalmi by six wickets

Multan now has two wins from three games and is level at the top of the points table

MULTAN (Dunya News) – Rilee Rossouw hit an unbeaten 49 and left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir grabbed 4-13 as the Multan Sultans notched a six-wicket victory over Peshawar Zalmi in their first home game of the Pakistan Super League on Wednesday.

Multan now has two wins from three games and is level at the top of the points table with title defender Quetta Gladiators and two-time champion Islamabad United.

The 2017 champion Peshawar, which was dismissed for its lowest PSL total of 123 in 18.3 overs, lost its second game and has two points from three matches.

Left-handers Rossouw and Khushdil Shah (43 not out off 29 balls) delighted a capacity crowd of 25,000 at the Multan Cricket Stadium with a match-winning unbeaten 77-run fifth-wicket stand as the home team raced to 124-4 off 14.5 overs.

"We executed our bowling plans very well and restricted the opponents," Multan captain Shan Masood said. "The intensity was right there although we dropped a catch off the very first ball, but both our seamers and spinners did a very good job."

After putting up a disappointing show with the bat, the Darren Sammy-led Peshawar struggled with its fielding as well. Sammy dropped James Vince in the first slip off the very first ball.

Rossouw also escaped twice when Rahat Ali dropped a low return catch off his own bowling and Liam Livingstone couldn´t hold on to a tough chance in the deep when the batsman reached 46.

"They (Multan) used the conditions to their advantage and now we have to bounce back," Sammy said.

 

Playing first, Peshawar Zalmi set a target of 124 runs for Multan Sultans who invited Zalmi to bat first after winning the toss.

Earlier, after being put into bat, Tom Banton (4) couldn´t capitalize after being dropped in the slip off Mohammad Irfan´s first ball as veteran Shahid Afridi took a smart catch at short extra cover to dismiss the Englishman in the same over.

Pakistan Under-19 batsman Haider Ali made an aggressive 47 off 27 balls with six fours and two sixes, but once he holed out to Rossouw at deep mid-wicket off Tanvir in the 11th over, Peshawar s innings never got back on track.

Sammy (2) took 12 balls to get off the mark as both spinners Imran Tahir of South Africa and Afridi tied down the West Indian before the Peshawar captain miscued a pull and was caught at mid on.

Tanvir returned for his second spell and claimed the last two wickets as Peshawar finished on a below-par total.

Multan, which plays three matches at home, next faces Karachi Kings on Friday while Peshawar takes on bottom-placed Lahore Qalandars in Rawalpindi the same day.

Squad

Peshawar Zalmi: 1 Tom Banton, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Haider Ali, 4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Liam Dawson, 7 Darren Sammy (capt), 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Rahat Ali, 11 Mohammad Amir Khan.

Multan Sultans: 1 Shan Masood (capt), 2 James Vince, 3 Moeen Ali, 4 Rilee Rossouw, 5 Zeeshan Ashraf (wk), 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Mohammad Ilyas, 10 Imran Tahir, 11 Mohammad Irfan.

The stadium is the home ground of Multan Sultans and the Sultans will play three matches of their campaign at the venue on Feb 26, 28 and 29 during the 5th edition of the HBL PSL.

The Multan Cricket Stadium is located in the outskirts of the historic City of Saints and was constructed in the year 2001 to replace the old Qasim Bagh Cricket Stadium – located in the heart of the densely populated city. The old stadium still hosts cricket and football matches, but it is not suitable for international competitions.

The Multan Cricket Stadium was not in a pristine condition as no international cricket was played at the venue since Pakistan cricket went into the wilderness after Sri Lankan cricket team came under terrorist attack outside Gaddafi Stadium Lahore in March 2009. It will be for the first time that international cricketers perform at the Multan Stadium, as the last international match was an ODI played between Pakistan and Bangladesh teams in April 2008.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), in anticipation of the return of international cricket and the PSL to the cricket-mad country, started the renovation and up-gradation of the stadium in 2018 and turned it into a picturesque venue with a lot of changes. The PCB spent over Rs 2 billion on the makeover and up-gradation of the Multan and Pindi cricket stadiums. (Pindi Cricket Stadium is the home ground of Islamabad United and will host eight HBL PSL V matches).

The stadium boasts to be the largest cricket stadium in the country with a capacity of 24,800 spectators while National Stadium Karachi and Gaddafi stadium Lahore can host 23,000 and 22,000 spectators, respectively.

Grass has been re-laid at the Multan Cricket Stadium which gives it a lush-green look and distinguishes it from its peers in the country. One of the conspicuous features of the stadium is a closer view of the players for the fans due to lesser distance between the seats and the playing area.

Besides many innovations at the Multan Cricket Stadium, fully furnished media boxes have been installed at the new-look stadium to facilitate the media persons and the broadcasters with state-of-the-art facilities.

Former captain and Pakistan head coach legendary Inzamam-ul-Haq, who hails from Multan, has termed the initiative historic. He said the conduct of the HBL PSL V matches at the lone cricket stadium of international standard in the southern Punjab will go a long way in promotion of cricket in the region, adding that it would emerge as the home to whet skills of the budding cricketers.

The HBL PSL V match between Multan Sultans and Peshawar Zalmi at the Multan Stadium marks the beginning of a new era of cricket – a sport the Pakistanis are madly in love with – in Pakistan.

The local team is also expected to pull the largest crowds with more home-crowd advantage for the Multan Sultans as was hoped Sultans skipper Shan Masood in an earlier press conference at the Gaddafi Stadium.