Amir, Babar excel as Karachi Kings beat Peshawar Zalmi by six wickets

Mohammad Amir grabbed 4-25 and Babar Azam notched a brilliant unbeaten 70 as the Karachi Kings jumped to third spot in the Pakistan Super League after beating the Peshawar Zalmi by six wickets on Monday.

After Amir’s impressive bowling restricted Peshawar to 151-8, Babar and Alex Hales eased Karachi to 152-4 in 18.1 overs with a 101-run, second-wicket stand off 65 balls.

Pakistan’s Twenty20 skipper, Babar, who was run out for 0 on Sunday in Karachi’s win over Islamabad, hit 10 fours in his 59-ball knock to earn their third win and second against Peshawar.

Hales missed a second successive half-century; he was dismissed for 49 off 27 balls that featured six fours and two sixes.

Amir had Tom Banton of England lbw off the very first ball via television referral. The left-arm fast bowler, in front of his hometown supporters at Pindi Cricket Stadium, also uprooted the off stump of Haider Ali off his third delivery as Peshawar slumped to 4-2 within the first three balls of the game.

Amir’s second spell claimed Lewis Gregory caught off a slower ball, and Carlos Brathwaite — playing his first game for Peshawar — top-edging a pull to West Indies countryman Chadwick Walton behind the wickets.

Veteran Shoaib Malik labored through 55 balls in scoring 68 runs to give Peshawar, missing rested skipper Darren Sammy, a respectable total.

Babar and Hales ensured it wasn’t respectable enough.

Multan Sultans lead the table with eight points, the defending champion Quetta Gladiators are two points behind in second, ahead of Karachi on net run rate. The 2017 champion Peshawar slipped to fifth.

Meanwhile, fast bowler Haris Rauf will be replaced by Salman Irshad, the right-arm fast-medium bowler, in Lahore Qalandars’ camp after the former was ruled out due to an injury in his right foot.

Haris is likely to miss the next two to three HBL Pakistan Super League 2020 matches for his side.

The replacement was approved by the event’s technical committee which includes PCB CEO Wasim Khan, Bazid Khan, Marina Iqbal, Sameer Khosa and Dr Sohail Saleem.

Agencies