Story of the match
The contest was between the Pakistan Super League's top two teams in the play-offs, and they provided the packed Dubai Sports City stadium full money's value on Friday night.
The equation in the last over was Peshawar Zalmi were left with eight runs to win.
Veteran seamer Aizaz Cheema was given the task of defending it for Quetta Gladiators.
He bowled a dot ball to start the over but the next, a low full toss, was whacked to the wide long-on fence by Wahab Riaz. He took a single in the next and Hassan Ali top-edged the next for Cheema to hold on to the skier.
Ahmed Shehzad held on to another skier to get rid of the dangerous looking Riaz (22) in the next ball and, with three runs required to win from the last delivery, Cheema conceded a single to clinch a nail-biting one-run win for the Gladiators.
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Kevin Pietersen and Kumar Sangakkara set the platform for the Gladiators with a valuable 79-run stand for the third wicket.
The veteran pair came together after the Gladiators lost both their openers with the score at 11 and set about to rebuild the innings.
The total at the end did not appear to be a strong one but the Gladiators bowlers, particularly Mohammed Nawaz and Grant Elliott, stuck to their task to guide their team to victory.
West Indian Darren Sammy kept Zalmi’s chances alive with a brisk 38, but he hit one too many and was caught at long on by Nathan McCullum for Nawaz’s third victim.
Pietersen’s 38-ball 53 was highlighted by five fours and two sixes and Sangakkara smashed half-a-dozen boundaries in his 29-ball 37. Nawaz chipped in with a useful 20 but not one of the others got into double figures.
Gladiators lost their two openers cheaply and then lost the last three wickets in three balls with Riaz taking two and a run-out in-between.
It looked like a comfortable chase for Zalmi as the two openers Mohammed Hafeez and Kamran Akmal set about the chase by scoring 29 off 27 balls when the latter departed.
Turning point
There were quite a few, but the two wickets from two balls from left-arm spinner Nawaz turned the game around for Quetta.
Until then, Zalmi seemed to be on top of the game, with openers Hafeez (15) and Kamran (9) putting on 29 off 27 balls before Anwar Ali got one through the latter’s defence.
Nawaz introduced to the attack in the next over knocked Hafeez’s off-stump with his first delivery and had Brad Hodge out for a golden duck, beaten by a delivery that pitched on the middle and turned sharply.
Kevin Pietersen, Quetta He would have still been playing for England in the T20 format if not for the off-field controversies surrounding him.
He walked in with just two balls bowled and watched the other opener, Shehzad, depart in the first ball of the fourth over when the scoreboard read 11. Any other batsman would have been cautious but Pietersen had other ideas: attack was his best defence.
Pietersen hit 53 off 38 balls and his 79-run stand with Sangakkara formed the basis of the Gladiators’ challenging total.
The National’s verdict
Quetta have secured their place in the PSL final with this win.
Peshawar have another chance to join them there when they face the winners of today’s second qualifying final between Islamabad United and Karachi Kings.
Overcoming Quetta will be no easy task, as the underdogs have proven their worth.
apassela@thenational.ae
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