Peshawar Zalmi to clash with Islamabad United in the finals of the PSL League 2018

Karachi Kings lost out to Peshawar Zalmi by 12 runs in their Eliminator match in Lahore on Wednesday.

The defeat at the Gaddafi Stadium meant the Kings were knocked out of the T20 tournament, whereas Zalmi qualified for their second straight final and will get to defend their title against Islamabad United in Karachi this Sunday.

The match's start was delayed for more than an hour due to overnight rain and a wet outfield. But the ground staff worked diligently to make sure the play was possible. The delay, however, meant that the all-important encounter was reduced to 16 overs per side.

When the match finally began, Zalmi, who were put into bat first, sent out Kamran Akmal and Andre Fletcher to open their innings, whereas Mohammad Amir and Usman Shinwari shared the new ball for the port city side.The opening over was quiet before Akmal livened things up in the second, hitting a 6 and a 4 off of Shinwari.

After 10 overs, Zalmi were 120-2, with Mohammad Hafeez and Liam Dawson, who by the way had hit a 6 the first ball he faced, in the middle .With just 6 overs left to play, Zalmi batters were taking added risk.

At this point, Zalmi had lost three wickets — all picked up by Bopara.

Shinwari had been decent in death overs in PSL 2018 with his yorkers. 

He targeted Darren Sammy's legs on the opening ball of 14th over, making it clear what his strategy was going to be.After missing the



opening ball, Sammy found a way, digging Shinwari's full-length ball and sending it over cow corner.

Zalmi's 150 was up in that same over before Dawson fell prey to Shinwari.

Captain Amir was one of the few Karachi bowlers who had bowled well on the night. He had been stingy in the 13th and again gave away just 6 runs in the 15th, finishing with figures of 4-0-16-0.Three wickets fell in the final over bowled by Saad Nasim but Zalmi managed to scored 11 off it, finishing with 170-7 in their allotted 16 overs.

With a mammoth total to chase, the Kings started off brightly as Joe Denly hit a trio of 4s in the opening over bowled by Hasan Ali.Two action-free overs piled up pressure on Karachi duo whose side needed a massive 89 runs from the final 6 overs to make the final.

The 11th and 12th over saw a couple of boundaries but a couple was not good enough at that stage. Karachi needed many boundaries every over but Denly and Azam just couldn't catch up to the rocketing run rate.

Both the batters brought up their half-centuries in the 12th over but the gargantuan task of getting their team over the distant line had yet to be accomplished.

Denly (unbeaten 79 off 46 balls) tried with all his might but could not get the job done. The Kings fell 12 runs short and were knocked out of PSL 2018.

Akmal was named the man of the match for his blistering innings.