Sammy wins Peshawar a thriller on one leg

Peshawar Zalmi 143 for 5 (Tamim 36, Sammy 16*) beat Quetta Gladiators 141 for 8 (Watson 47, Wahab 2-16, Asif 2-18) by five wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

In a nutshell

Darren Sammy doesn’t need to lift a finger to guarantee his place on the immortality shelf as far as the Pakistan Super League was concerned. But the Peshawar captain’s heroics, hobbling out to bat on one leg, ensured he has taken pride of place on that shelf for the foreseeable future.

Sammy hammered 16 off only four balls and propelled his side to a victory they looked to have all but squandered. Chasing 142, Peshawar had seemed on course for much of the innings, led by a disciplined – if a little sedate – 54-run partnership between Tamim Iqbal and Mohammad Hafeez. But with 35 required off the last five, the partnership was broken, and suddenly the chase went into disarray. The equation turned very quickly turned into 16 off the last 7 when Sammy, who was injured while bowling, dragged himself out to the crease.

It turned out his devastating physical power was undiminished, as he smashed two sixes off his first two balls, before a straight drive in the final over saw Peshawar clinch victory with two balls to spare.

Quetta Gladiators will rue an innings that kept stuttering at crucial points, beginning with a disappointing Powerplay, before Shane Watson hit Mohammad Asghar for three sixes in an over to breathe some life into his side. He hit five sixes in a 32-ball 47, but after he was dismissed, no one apart from Rilee Rossouw was able to kick on, with 19-year old seamer Sameen Gul – in for an injured Hasan Ali – enjoying a stellar debut. Wahab Riaz was at his all too infrequent best, bowling yorkers at up to 150 kph and preventing Quetta from teeing off in the death overs. It turned out every one of those runs saved made a massive difference.

Where the match was won

Sammy will grab the headlines, and well he might, but in the wake of the defeat, Quetta will want to look at a strange approach to their batting Powerplay. Gul and Umaid Asif were opening the bowling for Peshawar – hardly repositories of experience. If Watson and Asad Shafiq, both of whom have been around the block, had taken the attack to them with only two fielders out, it might have tested the young bowlers’ temperament a bit more. Gul and Asif’s eight overs went for only 38 runs and fetched two wickets too, but in truth, they were allowed to settle into rhythm. By seven overs, Quetta had scored only 33 runs. That wouldn’t be par for any course, but on this Sharjah strip with the small boundaries, it was bound to cost them.

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