Peshawar Zalmi 157 for 6 (Neesham 38, Powell 36, Hasnain 3-13) beat Quetta Gladiators 154 for 4 (Iftikhar 50*, Sarfaraz 39, Qadir 2-26) by 4 wickets
Defending 155 to win, the Gladiators needed early wickets, particularly after Mohammad Haris got Zalmi off to a blazing start in the first two overs. Hasnain would oblige, removing him and the precocious Saim Ayub off his first two deliveries. He followed up by getting rid of Tom Kohler-Cadmore in his second over, and it soon became apparent he was the one man stood between a Zalmi canter and a Quetta heist.
The 17th over was a masterclass of death bowling from Hasnain, toying with Wahab Riaz as he sent down a maiden, but with Naseem bowled out, the Gladiators simply didn’t have the quality to defend 19 in 18 balls. It took Zalmi just nine more balls to get home, with Wahab finishing the game off with a pair of boundaries against Mohammad Nawaz, who somehow tends to find himself thrown into this kind of situation.
He’d smashed Wahab Riaz for six sixes in a recent exhibition game, and on Monday, sent down a seventh off the first ball he faced from Zalmi’s skipper. Odean Smith picked up three successive boundaries off Neesham before Iftikhar brought up an unbeaten 34-ball 50 to sign off. It meant 97 had come off the final 7 overs.
It was still well below what was feasibly defensible, and as Hasnain found out to his cost, his teammates simply hadn’t done enough in a game where he possibly couldn’t have done more.