It was a storm in Abu Dhabi, not the usual desert one, but one of the runs created by the Islamabad United batters against Peshawar Zalmi in the 26th game of the Pakistan Super League’s 2021 edition. Usman Khawaja led that charge, scoring his maiden PSL century that came of just 54 balls. He reached his hundred with a six ad in fact scored 21 runs in the last six balls that he faced.
Thanks to this unbeaten hundred by the Australian, Islamabad were able to break their own record of the highest team total in the PSL history as they surpassed their previous best of 238 that they had scored in Karachi in 2019. The United scorecard at the end of the innings read 247-2 with Khawaja unbeaten at 103 of 56. In his innings, the southpaw hit 13 fours and three brilliant sixes.
It was a great comeback for Khawaja, who is also captaining the United in absence of usual skipper Shadab Khan who was rested for the match. In fact, he became the first and only skipper to score a century in PSL's history. In the previous four innings that Khawaja played in the Abu Dhabi leg of the tournament, he had scored only 70 runs with a 27 ball 40 against Quetta being his best. Apart from Khawaja, all other batsmen including Colin Munro, Asif Ali and Brandon Kings scored well complied and quick forties.
The Zalmi bowlers were all over the place even as this was an important game for the team from Peshawar. The Wahab Riza-led side must win this game to get themselves comfortably in the playoffs without being at the mercy of other teams’ results. However, at the time of writing this, the Zalmi were 34/1 in 4.1 overs chasing 248.