Kusal Mendis' unbeaten 80 off 43 balls, including 5 fours and 4 sixes, and his unbroken 119-run stand in only 69 balls with Farhan Yousaf (58* off 36) powered Peshawar Zalmi to a seven-wicket win over Karachi Kings in the afternoon game in Lahore on Wednesday (April 22). Jason Roy's 51-ball 85 helped Kings to 182/9 but the total proved insufficient as Zalmi got over the line with seven deliveries to spare, extending their unbeaten run in this edition.
Opting to bat, Kings got off to a quick start despite David Warner's 13-ball 11, thanks to Roy setting the platform with regular boundaries. After Warner was bowled by Ali Raza, Roy was joined by Salman Agha, whose stay lasted only nine balls and yielded 12 runs. But Roy's contributions - 23 each in the partnerships for the first two wickets - ensured the scoring rate remained positive as he brought up a 30-ball 50 to take Kings to 83/2 after 10 overs.
Reeza Hendricks also struggled to get going before Roy eventually found an ideal partner in Azam Khan, with whom he shared a 63-run stand off only 32 balls for the fourth wicket. Roy struck two sixes in his outing while Azam cleared the fence thrice, as they took Kings past 150 in the 17th over. Both batters fell in successive overs but some useful hits from Khushdil Shah took Kings past 180. But Kings ended up losing four wickets in the final over, with the 18-year-old Ali Raza also bagging a hat-trick - the youngest to do so in the PSL, preventing the batting side from making a push towards the 200 mark.
Zalmi got off to a steady start in the chase with their openers adding 37 before Abbas Afridi got the wicket of Babar Azam by inducing a leading edge. James Vince fell to Hasan Ali in the next over, handing a catch to the 'keeper trying to play with an open face. Even as Kusal Mendis batted positively, hitting a couple of maximums, Aaron Hardie was bowled by Khushdil as Zalmi moved to 80 for 3 at the halfway stage.
Mendis and Farhan Yousaf went about steadying Zalmi, with the former bringing up a 28-ball fifty and then striking two sixes in an over off Abbas Afridi to take the team to 144/3 after 16 overs. Yousaf's six and a four off Hasan Ali in the following over brought the equation to 27 off the last three overs, and the bowler also put down a simple catch in the same over. It became 13 off the last two overs as Mendis and Yousaf struck a four each off Abbas Afridi before the No. 5 batter hit a four and a six off Hasan to bring up a 35-ball fifty and then hit the winning boundary.
@B0$ Karachi Kings 182/9 in 20 overs (Jason Roy 85, Azam Khan 35; Ali Raza 4-41) lost to Peshawar Zalmi 186/3 in 18.5 overs (Kusal Mendis 80*, Farhan Yousaf 58*; Khushdil Shah 1-40) by 7 wickets.
