Mulatn Sultans in PSL 9 final after easy win over Peshawar Zalmi

Yasir Khan hit a 37-ball 54 runs as cautious Multan Sultans comfortably defeated Peshawar Zalmi by seven wickets in the first Qualifier to secure final place in the Pakistan Super League at the National Bank Cricket Stadium in Karachi Thursday.

Peshawar, however, will have another shot at the final place when they take on the winner of the first eliminator between Islamabad United and Quetta Gladiators on Saturday in the second eliminator.

Chasing a target of 147 runs, Multan were never in a point of bother as their batters confidently chased the target in 18.3 overs losing three wickets in the process.

Captain Muhammad Rizwan made 15 runs and Johnson Charles 11. Usman Khan (36 off 28) and Iftikhar Ahmad (22 off 8) remained unbeaten.

For Peshawar, Mehran Mumtaz, Aamer Jamal and Salman Irshad took one wicket each.

Earlier, a disciplined bowling effort from Multan Sultans bowlers kept Peshawar Zalmi to 146-7 in the allotted 20 overs in the first Qualifier on a pitch that was described as favouring batsmen by the cricket pundits before the toss.

After electing to bat first, Zalmi lost inform opener Saim Ayub in the very first over when he skied a David Willey’s delivery to the deep midwicket square where Yasir Khan took the catch.

Captain Babar Azam again starred with the bat for his team but no other batsmen supported him adding more pressure on him. Things were looking good when Babar and Muhammad Haris were on the crease and took the score to 51 runs in the first six overs before Haris who is habitual of throwing away his wicket after getting start did the same again when he handed a simple catch to wicketkeeper Muhammad Rizwan off the bowling of Muhammad Ali.

Haseebaullah Khan also came and went quickly scoring just 3 runs when he cut a wide outside off delivery off Usama Mir straight to the safe hands of Ali.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Babar added 44 runs for the fourth wicket before a ripping Yorker off Chris Jordan cleaned up Babar reducing Zalmi to 101-4 in 13.4 obvers. Babar made 46 runs off 42 deliveries

Kohler-Cadmore was also back to the pavilion in the 16^th over after scoring 22 runs off 14 deliveries when he tried to smash Mir Tries into the stands but ended up giving a regulation catch to David Willey at long-off.

Rovman Powell could make 12 and Aamer Jamal only 1.

Paul Walter and Luke Wood remained unbeaten as both scored 14 runs each as Zalmi finished their overs quota at 146-7.

For Sultans, Mir took 2-16, Jordan 2-28, Ali 1-13, Abbas Afridi 1-21 and David Willey 1-31.