PSL 2023 Eliminator Match: Last night (March 16) the first eliminator match was played in Pakistan Super League (PSL). The teams of Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi, who were third and fourth in the points table, were face to face here. In this match, Peshawar Zalmi, captained by Babar Azam, gave a thrilling defeat to Shadab Khan’s Islamabad United. With this, Islamabad United is now out of the tournament. At the same time, Peshawar’s team will now face Lahore Qalandars in the second eliminator match.
Islamabad United captain Shadab Khan won the toss and chose to bowl first in this match. Peshawar Zalmi started fast and added 60 runs in 28 balls for the first wicket. Here Saim Ayub (23) Mohammad Wasim returned to the pavilion. After this, Captain Babar took the innings a bit further with Hasibullah Khan. Hasibullah (15) was dismissed by Shadab Khan. Although Babar was stuck at one end. When Peshawar’s team’s score reached 137 runs in 13 overs, then Babar (64) returned to the pavilion, he was also dismissed by Shadab.
After Babar Azam’s dismissal, Peshawar’s run rate slowed down and back to back wickets also started falling. The result was that at one time this team, which was seen going beyond 200, was able to score only 183 runs after losing 8 wickets.
Islamabad United were heading towards an easy win
In response to the target of 184 runs, Islamabad lost its first wicket on a total of 13 runs. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (10) soon returned to the pavilion. After this, the 115-run partnership between Alex Hales and Sohaib Maqsood made the way to victory almost easy for Islamabad. Islamabad needed only 56 runs in 6 overs and had 9 wickets in hand. Here Sohaib Maqsood (60) got out and then there was a flurry of wickets.
Lost 5 wickets within 26 runs
With the dismissal of Maqsood, Islamabad lost 5 wickets adding just 26 runs in 27 balls. This is where the victory slipped from the hands of this team. In the last two overs, Shadab Khan definitely scored 26 runs in 12 balls but it was not enough and Islamabad had to face defeat by 12 runs. For Peshawar, Amir Jamal and Salman Irshad got two wickets each, while Omarzai got one wicket.
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