Babar’s century lead Zalmi to a victory

Pakistani star batsman once again shines in the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore but this time in the PSL. Babar Azam shamed his second PSL century and overall 11th ton becoming the only Asian batsman to have scored 10+ T20 centuries.

Islamabad United won the toss and opted to field first. Captain Babar and Saim Ayyub opened the innings with an impressive strike in the power play. After Saim’s wicket, Zalmi lost two more back-to-back wickets as Muhammad Haris and Hasibullah could not do much on the pitch.

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Babar slowed down his strike rate and completed his fifty off 39 balls. He was (looking to be) struggling at 58 runs in 42 balls. Then he went on to smash the next fifty in just 18 balls. Babar remained Not Out on 111* (60) and Zalmi set a target of 202 for United to chase.

Islamabad United has a squad full of hard hitters from Azam Khan to Haider Ali, Shadab Khan to Imad Wasim, and Faheem Ashraf to Munro. But the target was too high to be chased that easily.

Azam Khan scored 75 off 30 balls. At one stage, they had already clinched the victory but an over from Arif Yaqub changed the fate. He took 4 wickets in one over and the rest is history. Zalmi won by 8 runs.