Entrant Multan Sultan tame Defending Champions Zalmi in PSL-3 opener

Third edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL) started with a star stunned opening ceremony where legendary Sufi singer Abida Parveen and American Pop musician Jason Derulo along with local heartthrobs Ali Zafar and Shahzad Roy performed in front of a charged crowed.

After the ceremony, this first match was played between the newcomers Multan Sultans and defending champions Peshawar Zalmi. Shoaib Malik was skipper of Multan Sultans while West Indian former captain Darren Sammy was leading the Zalmi’s. Shoaib Malik, after winning the toss decided to field first. “We want to ball first as we do not know how the wickets behaves as it’s pretty new wicket for all of us”, Malik said.

Kamran Akmal and Bangladeshi star Tamim Iqbal came out to open from Peshawar. Start of Peshawar was not as good as it was assumed as Kamran Akmal got a duck and Zalmi lost its first wicket on 4 in second over. Stylish opener Tamim Iqbal could not resist too long and he fall prey as well on team total of 22 runs in the 4th over. Both the openers were picked up by Mohammad Irfan.

Dwayne Smith then started building partnership with Mohammad Hafeez as both contributed 35 runs for 3rd wicket and after playing a handy innings of 24, Smith lost his wicket. Haris Sohail was also involved in innings building with Mohammad Hafeez but he too got out on 14 runs when team’s score was on 101 runs in the 16th over. Captain Darren Sammy then joined Hafeez and meanwhile, Hafeez completed his half century but he’s picked up by Junaid Khan as he played an innings of 59 runs in 52 balls with 6 fours and 1 big six.

As Hafeez departed Sammy played a cameo of 29 runs in just 11 balls with two boundaries and 3 huge sixes Including 21 and 19 runs he leaked in 18th and 19th over consecutively that helped Zalmi passed 150 mark as they ended their innings on 151-6 in allotted 20 overs.

All the bowlers contributed from Multan as Mohammad Ifran got 2 for 19 in 4 overs while, Sohail Tanvir, Junaid Khan, Imran Tahir and Hardus Viljoen picked up 1 wicket each from Multan.

In reply, Multan with an identical start lost first wicket on 7 runs when Ahmed Shahzad departed with scoring a run. Sohaib Maqsood came to bat with Sangakkara as he played a blinder of 21 in 16 balls including the 2 sixes over against Hammad Azam. After Sohaib Maqsood, skipper Sohaib Malik came to bat and both the veteran players started building the innings as Sangakkara completed his 50 but he was picked up by furious Wahab Riaz on 57 runs. He played 51 balls for his 57 as he hit 3 boundaries and 2 fours. Both the players added 52 runs for the third wicket partnership.

As Sanga departed, big man Pollard came in the middle and Both Shoaib Malik and Kieron Pollard guided Sultan to win the match by 7 wickets as Malik smashed a cracking six to achieve the target in 19.1 overs for the loss of 3 wickets. Shoaib Malik remained unbeaten on 42 while Pollard scored 21 not out runs.

Wahab Riaz got 2 wickets while Mohammad Asghar picked 1 from Zalmi. Kumar Sangakkara for his half century was declared man of the match.
Two matches to be played today as in the first match, Karachi Kings to take on Quetta Gladiators at 4:30PM while the second match was played between Multan Sultans and Lahore Qalandars at 9:00 PM in Dubai international cricket stadium.

Scorecard Summary