Chris Gayle flops again as Peshawar Zalmi prove too good for Lahore Qalandars

The team from northwest Pakistan beat the Qalandars by nine wickets after limiting their opponents to 117 for six. Osman Samiuddin reports.

Chris Gayle eh? World boss, the format’s most dangerous opening batsman, global party animal? Not so much in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

For the second time in two days, Gayle did not last past the first over. On Friday he fell fourth ball in the Lahore Qalandars’ defeat to Karachi Kings. On Saturday he did not even last that long, bowled first ball of the match by Junaid Khan. It was the first time he has been dismissed in T20s off the very first ball of an innings.

That dismissal was one of two in the first over. Two balls later Cameron Delport was run-out, lazily not grounding his bat as he ran in to the non-strikers’ end. A recovery from a double-wicket maiden does not often lead to T20 wins and so it did not in Lahore’s game, against Peshawar Zalmi.

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They were three down by the end of the second over, well on their way to a second, chastening defeat in two days. Even this early in the tournament, they are looking like the league’s most hapless side.

They were never allowed to get away thereafter. Umar Akmal sparkled intermittently and captain Azhar Ali battled along but never looked as if they may stage a full recovery.

That is no surprise. On early evidence, Peshawar appear to have an exceptionally well-rounded attack: extreme, slingy pace in Shaun Tait and Wahab Riaz, more conventional pace in Junaid, the leg-spin of Shahid Afridi and some refreshing old school left-arm spin in Mohammed Asghar.

A late flurry from Dwayne Bravo, in which he took 16 off a Wahab over before perishing, meant that Lahore were spared the indignity of not even getting to three figures.

In reply, Mohammed Hafeez and Tamim Iqbal went at the total with all the disdain it deserved. The only thing right now that looks worse than Lahore’s batting is their bowling.

The pair burst through the opening three overs and then settled down to pick off the rest. It was difficult to know which of them was having an easier time, or timing the ball better. One on drive from Tamim seemed to be the shot of the evening, until Hafeez hit a couple of sixes straight and over extra cover in the 11th over.

He fell in the next over, but Peshawar were 95 runs into a target of 118. All that was left was for Tamim to saunter and then crawl to fifty, securing a second successive win for Peshawar.

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