Babar Azam’s century but saved by Arif Yaqub

After losing their opening two matches in the Pakistan Super League Nine, Peshawar Zalmi have secured their third consecutive victory in the tournament.

Peshawar Zalmi defeated Islamabad United by eight runs thanks to Babar Azam’s batting and Arif Yaqub’s excellent bowling in this sensational match played at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore on Monday.

In pursuit of Peshawar Zalmi’s target of 202 runs, Islamabad United, despite a slow start, took control of the match with the aggressive batting of Colin Munro and Azam Khan and till the 19th over, it seemed that Islamabad United would win this match easily. will go

But Babar Azam’s plan was a bit over. Contrary to expectations, Babar Azam gave the 19th over to leg-spinner Arif Yaqub, who changed the entire map of the match in a single over.

Islamabad United needed 21 runs to win from the last two overs with Colin Munro and Hyder Ali at the crease. On the very first ball of the over, Arif Yaqub dismissed set batsman Colin Munro for an individual score of 71. After that, Faheem Ashraf came to the crease and Hyder Ali was caught out without making any runs and returned to the pavilion.

After that, Arif Yaqoob guided Faheem Ashraf and Haneen Shah to the pavilion in the same over and brought his team to the same position where Islamabad United was before this over.

Arif Yaqub dismissed five players by giving 27 runs in four overs. Apart from him, Naveen-ul-Haq also played an important role, dismissing the dangerous batsman Azam Khan on the last ball of the 18th over for an individual score of 75. Azam Khan’s innings included six sixes and six fours.

Earlier, Islamabad United won the toss and decided to field first, then Peshawar Zalmi once again put a big score on the board thanks to the good start of their openers, but this time the most important thing was the century of captain Babar Azam, who His fans were eagerly waiting.

Peshawar Zalmi were given a good start by Babar Azam and Saeem Ayub and both of them were aggressive from the start and scored 77 runs in just seven and three overs in the first wicket partnership.

But on this occasion, Peshawar Zalmi was under a bit of pressure due to the dismissal of first Saeem Ayub and in the next over Muhammad Haris and then Haseebullah. However, later Babar Azam and Palter took over the innings and scored a crucial 34 runs in the fourth wicket partnership.

Islamabad United once again came back into the match on this occasion and took two wickets but Babar Azam stayed at the crease.

Babar Azam also scored 77 runs in sixth wicket partnership with Asif Ali but the highlight of this partnership was Babar Azam’s innings. In these 77 runs, only Babar Azam scored 59 runs off 22 balls.

During this partnership, Babar Azam appeared in a completely different style, which can be estimated from the over of Naseem Shah’s brother Haneen Shah, in which Babar Azam hit four fours and a six.

Babar Azam played an unbeaten innings of 111 runs off 63 balls in this match which included two sixes and 14 fours.

Babar Azam was declared the best player of the match for his innings, while Peshawar Zalmi chairman Javed Afridi has also announced to gift him the first MG Essence car made in Pakistan on his century.