Peshawar Zalmi pacer Hasan Ali picked up four wickets before all-rounder Kieron Pollard hit four successive sixes in a tense chase to secure a five-wicket win over Multan Sultans in PSL 2019 in Sharjah on Sunday.
Chasing 146 for a win, things got tight towards the end before Pollard hit a 10-ball 25 to secure victory.
Zalmi’s Hasan has been in sensational form in PSL 2019 and Sunday was another stupendous outing for the right-arm quick.
Bowling first, Hasan was the best bower on display by far as his 4-17 helped bowl the Sultans out for 145 when they looked set for a much bigger total at one stage.
Multan would have fancied a few more runs at the death, placed at 140-4 with two overs to go. But in an incredible last two overs, the Sultans managed to get bowled out in pursuit of quick runs.
Hasan started the collapse by getting captain Shoaib Malik out caught behind off the first ball of the 19th over. Any hopes for a 160-plus total were thrown out of the window by Hasan as he accounted for the dangerous Shahid Afridi and Hammad Azam to finish with four wickets and derail the Multan innings.
The Sultans lost three more wickets in the final over – including two runs outs – to be all out and lose their last six wickets for just five runs.
The chase was far from straightforward for Zalmi. Even though they didn’t lose wickets, the scoring rate barely got above six an over for most part. Opener Imam-ul-Haq (52 off 44) anchored the innings while Dawid Malan scored 38 off 35 balls.
The equation came down to 41 from the last five overs and Multan kept the pressure up. Dan Christian accounted for Liam Dawson but Imam held fort. However, in a controversial moment, Junaid Khan had Imam out lbw even though upon referral, the bowler was found to have bowled a marginal no-ball. But third umpire Rashid Riaz inexplicably deemed the delivery legal and the lbw decision stayed.
As the chase got tense with Zalmi needing 31 from the last three overs, Pollard smashed left-arm seamer Mohammad Irfan for four successive sixes to effective end the match.