Ton-up Sharjeel brings high flying Peshawar down to earth

DUBAI: Opener Sharjeel Khan pounded a sparkling 117 and spinner Imran Khalid guaranteed four scalps as Islamabad United cut down high-flying Peshawar Zalmi sensible by 50 keeps running in the Pakistan Super League play-off tie at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium here on Sunday night. Pursuing a considerable focus of 177, Peshawar drooped to 126-10 in 18 overs. With this win, Islamabad fit the bill for the last to be played against Quetta Gladiators on Tuesday (today). It was an inside and out show by Islamabad batsmen and bowlers as they send a solid, ritzy Peshawar pressing. Peshawar have had an extraordinary competition until playoffs where they lost both of their matches. Quetta, in a nail-gnawing last-ball complete, overcame Peshawar in the principal playoff on February 19.

Peshawar began moderate in the Powerplay and were imprinted when Samuel Badree rejected Dawid Malan in the fourth over. Peshawar's fundamental wellspring of resistance was opener Kamran Akmal, who made 45 from 32 balls. Be that as it may, with the following four batsmen scored just in single digits, the composition was on the divider. Imran evacuated Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran in sequential overs, and Brad Hodge and Darren Sammy in the same over - the thirteenth - to decrease Peshawar to 80 for 5. By then, the required run rate had shot up more than 13 for each over. Shahid Afridi gave his group a couple recently strikes, yet it was insufficient. In his 17-ball keep focused wrinkle, Afridi scored 38 runs hitting four monstrous sixes and two fours. Shahid Yousuf made (four), Wahab Riaz (one), Hassan Ali (one) and Mohammad Asghar (zero). Imran completed with 4 for 20 from his three overs and Andre Russell took three lower-request wickets, including Afridi's, to end with 3 for 37.

Prior, put into bat, Islamabad set up together a 108-run opening stand in 13.1 overs, a larger part of the runs falling off Sharjeel's sharp edge. Dwayne Smith, the other opener, attempted to kick it into high gear bat on ball amid his stay of 37 balls to score 19 keeps running without a solitary limit. In the ninth over, Sharjeel unleashed two sixes and a four against left-arm spinner Asghar. He took after that up with an assault on Afridi too in the following over to raise his fifty. The most exciting over, however, was the fourteenth in which Shaun Tait released Smith and Brad Haddin off continuous conveyances, yet Akmal dropped Khalid Latif to deny Tait of a cap trap. Sharjeel then struck the following two bundles of the over for a four and six. He raised his hundred, studded with 12 fours and eight sixes, in style with a straight six in the sixteenth over and helped Islamabad score 46 in the last five overs. He was run-out in the last over of the innings. He was announced the Man of the Match. The Hyderabad-conceived Sharjeel was delighted in backing in death overs by Khalid, who came into bat at number four, and scored a significant 28 off 21 balls.