A strong partnership between Babar Azam and Alex Hales steered Karachi Kings to a six-wicket victory over Peshawar Zalmi in their 2020 Pakistan Super League fixture at the Pindi Cricket Stadium on Monday.

The Kings, who were chasing a 152-run target set by Zalmi, finished with a score of 152-4 with 11 balls remaining out of their 20 overs.

Although the Kings lost Sharjeel Khan, trapped leg before wicket by Hasan Ali, in the very first over, Hales (49 off 27) and Babar (70 from 59) built up a strong partnership to steady the team's ship.

The duo kept on piling runs until the 12th over, when Yasir Shah first bowled out Hales and dismissed his replacement Cameron Delport four balls later.

The Kings also lost Chadwick Walton to Carlos Brathwaite in the 18th over, but it was too late to harm their chances of victory and Babar struck a four to take his team over the line.

Earlier, after being sent in to bat, Peshawar Zalmi had finished with a score of 151-8.

Zalmi lost early wickets and were 17-3 at the end of five overs. Player of the match Mohammad Amir had Tom Banton lbw on the very first ball of the match, and struck again two balls later to bowl out Haider Ali.

In the fourth over, Kamran Akmal was caught by Babar Azam off Aamer Yamin after contributing four runs from eight.

Babar also caught Liam Livingstone on a ball by Umer Khan in the 10th over.

Amir then returned to take the wickets of Lewis Gregory and Carlos Brathwaite while Chris Jordan dismissed Wahab Riaz and Shoaib Malik.

Kings earlier won the toss in what was the 15th match of PSL's fifth edition and decided to field first against Zalmi.

For Kings, Aamer Yamin came in for Umaid Asif. Zalmi made three changes and they were led by Wahab Riaz with Darren Sammy resting today.

Karachi Kings came into the game on the back of a confidence-boosting five-wicket victory over Islamabad United at the same venue on Sunday. They have won three out of the five matches they've played so far in the tournament while 2017 champions Zalmi have won two out of their six fixtures.

Zalmi's last match against United was called off due to rain.

Teams:

Karachi Kings: Sharjeel Khan, Babar Azam, Alex Hales, Cameron Delport, Chadwick Walton (wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim (c), Chris Jordan, Umer Khan, Aamer Yamin, Mohammad Amir.

Peshawar Zalmi: Kamran Akmal (wk), Tom Banton, Haider Ali, Liam Livingstone, Shoaib Malik, Lewis Gregory, Carlos Brathwaite, Wahab Riaz (c), Hasan Ali, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali.