KARACHI: In the HBL Pakistan Super League Qualifier here at the National Bank Stadium on Thursday night, Peshawar Zalmi simply did not show enough drive to book a place in the tournament’s final.

Led by Babar Azam, the former champions looked complacent as a clinical Multan Sultans cruised to Monday’s decider with a seven-wicket win.

Complacency won’t be an option on Saturday, when Zalmi take on the winners of the first Eliminator to fight once again to take a step towards their second title.

Almost solely on the back of Babar’s 46, Zalmi could manage only 100 more runs batting first, a target which was easily achieved by the Sultans, thanks to Yasir Khan’s half-century.

Zalmi were far from being a challenge with the bat and hardly threatening with the ball, but their head coach Darren Sammy wasn’t losing his title hopes.

“So, we still have two more games to play,” he said, keeping himself open to the possibility of playing the final. “We’re going to put this one to rest, reevaluate the opposition while we wait to see what happens on Friday, and then come back stronger.”

The National Bank Stadium surface has assisted spinners this season and Usama Mir capitalised on it with two wickets against Zalmi.

While the Pakistan leg-spinner excelled in the middle, Sammy would have been rueing leaving out Arif Yaqoob, who bowls leg-break too, out of the Zalmi XI.

“I mean, we all could speak in hindsight about who we should have played, but [Arif] Yaqoob was very close to playing on this surface,” he said. “I mean, his experience in spin has been a bit difficult.

“But you know, when you make decisions in terms of team balance and stuff, again, it’s something we could look at. We’ll definitely look at it in the next game we play here.”

Sammy, however, did not hold back from showing how impressed he has been with Babar, both as a batter and the team’s captain in the last two seasons.

“He’s been quality ever since he came to this franchise,” said the former West Indies skipper. “My job has always been to enhance his leadership skills. I must say he’s improving at a rapid pace. Some of the decisions he’s been making out there have impacted us positively on winning.”

DELIGHT FOR USAMA

Meanwhile, Usama continued his domination as the top-wicket taker in the ongoing season of the PSL with 23 victims against his name.

Two more wickets will take the right-armer past pacer Hasan Ali’s record of highest number of scalps in a season.

Usama’s success in the PSL has come after a dismal show in last year’s World Cup in India, where he was expected to do well, given that he finished as the top wicket-taker in the preceding Pakistan Cup – the premier domestic one-day tournament of the country.

The Sialkot-born bowler revealed the drop of his form was due to a minor change in his bowling strategy, and that now he has reversed it and therefore reaping rewards again.

“I had done well in a World Cup warm-up match where I flighted the ball more than normal and I tried to continue that throughout the tournament,” he said. “But that did not work for long and I realised I have to go back to my original style, using more pace and completing my action and here I am taking wickets again.”

Usama said he was looking forward to representing Pakistan in the upcoming T20 World Cup, set to be played in the West Indies and the US in June.

Before that, however, he will have all his focus set on the PSL final on Monday.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2024