MULTAN: At a muted Multan Cricket Stadium, it was a game reflective of the dismal campaign the home side has had. The Multan Sultans couldn\u2019t muster any strength to stave away Peshawar Zalmi; overran by Babar Azam\u2019s side who hauled themselves firmly into Pakistan Super League playoffs contention with a clinical seven-wicket victory on Monday night.<\/p>\n
With their fourth win of the season, Zalmi moved to eight points, just one behind Lahore Qalandars who occupy the fourth spot in the table, with a game in hand. For the Sultans, it was the fifth defeat in a row.<\/p>\n
On this showing, Mohammad Rizwan\u2019s men \u2014 winners in 2021 and finalists in each of the last four seasons \u2014 look unlikely to get even a consolation win in their final match of the season against the Quetta Gladiators on Sunday.<\/p>\n
With their disciplined bowling, Zalmi strangled the Sultans and shot them down for a paltry 108 \u2014 pacer Ahmed Daniyal (3-17) and spinner Maaz Sadaqat (2-12) ripping through the opposition batting.<\/p>\n
As Saim Ayub finally found some form and big hits \u2014 smashing three sixes and four fours in a 33-ball 49, it became a question of how long Zalmi will take to chase down the total. Max Bryant hit a six and five fours in a 20-ball 38 not out to finish things off with a full seven overs to spare.<\/p>\n
Already out of playoffs contention, there was only pride on the line for the Sultans, aiming to thwart Zalmi\u2019s ambitions with just a second win in their penultimate game of the season.<\/p>\n
Having chosen to bat, they made a tentative start before Rizwan broke free in the second over, striking consecutive boundaries off Alzarri Joseph.<\/p>\n
His opening partner Yasir Khan also got two fours in the third over by Luke Wood but departed soon after, top-edging Saim to short fine.<\/p>\n
Rizwan (17) swept Saim for his third boundary but fell in the sixth over when he found Ahmed at backward square off Wood; Sultans ending the powerplay at 40-2.<\/p>\n
Tayyab Tahir flickered briefly in his 18-ball 22, hitting two fours and a massive six \u2014 off Saim \u2014 before mistiming Ahmed to Mitchell Owen at deep square leg.<\/p>\n
And Zalmi were well and truly on top when spinner Maaz cleaned up Ashton Turner for a duck to leave the Sultans at 62-4 at the midway point of their innings.<\/p>\n
Maaz would then disturb the timber once again to send back Mohammad Amir Barki; the Sultans having slumped from 60-2 to 65-5.<\/p>\n
It would get worse with Ali Raza having Shahid Aziz caught behind; the Sultans having seen four wickets fall for the addition of just six runs.<\/p>\n
An indication of how Zalmi had tightened the noose came in the 14th over when Shai Hope, who had arrived after Rizwan\u2019s dismissal, slammed Maaz stright down the ground for a four for the Sultans\u2019 first boundary after 28 balls.<\/p>\n
Hope then launched Joseph over long off for six but his West Indies compatriot soon exacted revenge by dismissing him for a 21-ball 23 four balls later with the Sultans at 87-7 with five overs to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MULTAN: At a muted Multan Cricket Stadium, it was a game reflective of the dismal campaign the home side has had. The Multan Sultans couldn\u2019t muster any strength to stave away Peshawar Zalmi; overran by Babar Azam\u2019s side who hauled themselves firmly into Pakistan Super League playoffs contention with a clinical seven-wicket victory on Monday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8907,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905\/revisions\/8907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}