Peshawar Zalmi captain Babar Azam did not appreciate a question asked to him by a journalist as he sarcastically asked the journo if he should play with a strike rate of 300. Zalmi suffered a horrific defeat against Islamabad United on Thursday (February 24) by 6 wickets. The Babar Azam-led side scored 156 in the first innings with the captain scoring 75 off 58 balls in 20 overs. In reply, Islamabad United reached their target in just 14.5 overs as Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 62 off 31 along with van der Dussen 42 (29) and Asif Ali 29 (13)*.
During the game, Zalmi were at 76/0 and in the blink of an eye, they were 99/5. The journalist asked Babar if he thought he should have scored at a better strike rate, to which the skipper replied like this….
Don’t mess with Babar Azam tonight #HBLPSL8pic.twitter.com/nUZFXeUNp9
— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) February 23, 2023
Earlier, James Neesham’s brilliant all-round show eased Peshawar Zalmi to a four-wicket win over Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League. Neesham picked up the key wicket of his fellow New Zealander Martin Guptill inside the batting powerplay and top-scored with 37 off 23 balls as Peshawar chased down 155 with nine balls to spare. Peshawar cruised to 157-6 after Quetta made 154-4.
Quetta was led by Iftikhar Ahmed, who notched 50 off 34 balls for his first half-century this season, and Odean Smith with a breezy 25. Peshawar fast bowlers Arshad Iqbal, making his season debut, and Wahab Riaz dominated early, forcing the Quetta batters to take risks.
After 117 on Saturday, Guptill scratched out 12 before holing out to midwicket off Neesham. Jason Roy was clean bowled by Usman Qadir’s googly, and captain Sarfaraz Ahmed was deceived by a slow Iqbal yorker after 39 off 30.
Iftikhar and Smith hit 43 off the final 19 balls to set a target. Peshawar’s batters plundered spinners Qais Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz, while Mohammad Hasnain snared 3-13.
Neesham and Rovman Powell combined in a rapid 43-run stand to take the game away from Quetta. When they were dismissed by the 15th over, Peshawar needed just 21 more runs. Wahab finished the game with two successive boundaries and Peshawar moved to second in the standings. (With PTI inputs)
