PSL 8: Rossouw, Mir set up second win for Multan


image-le8ur627Rossouw and Rizwan forged another match-winning partnership. (Twitter) 

Fifties from Rilee Rossouw and Mohammad Rizwan followed by a brilliant bowling display by the bowlers helped Multan Sultans thump Peshawar Zalmi by 56 runs in the fifth match of the ongoing season of the PSL to go top of the points table with 2 wins in 3 games.

Rossouw, Rizwan powered Multan to a mammoth total

Put into bat first, the home side had a great start to their innings as the opening pair of Shan Masood and Mohammad Rizwan laid a solid foundation for a big first innings total with a 54-run partnership.

While Rizwan was looking fluent as ever, Masood was struggling to get the timing right. His struggle came to an end when he perished in the eighth over while attempting to play a lap sweep off Salman Irshad but ended up nicking the ball straight to Zalmi wicketkeeper Mohammad Haris. In walked the hero of Multan's first win of the season Rilee Rossouw who looked determined to get another big score for his team. Meanwhile, Rizwan switched gears and started to take on the opposition bowlers. In the process, he brought up his second half-century of the ongoing season before falling to Sufiyan Muqeem in the 14th over. The Multan opener smashed 66 off 42 deliveries, laced with nine boundaries and a six. 

In form, Rossouw hammered most of the Zalmi bowlers and took them to the cleaners. he reached 50 off just 23 balls, also helping Multan Sultans reach 150 in 15.2 overs. Rossouw continued his onslaught as the Zalmi bowlers looked clueless in front of him. The southpaw was dismissed off the last ball of the penultimate over of the innings but not before he had done the damage. David Miller (23) and Kieron Pollard (15) provided the finishing touches as Multan reached 210/3.

Usama and Ihsanullah came in Multan's defense

Peshawar needed a quick start from the opening pair of skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Haris. The latter was the aggressor for the visiting team. He went berserk as Peshawar Zalmi scored 41 runs in four overs but then Multan's pace sensation Ihsanullah was introduced, who made an immediate impact with the ball, dismissing star batter Babar for nine runs in his first over. Emerging young batter Saim Ayub joined Haris in the middle and did not waste any time to settle down and hit Ihsanullah for a four and six in the same over. Both young guns kept hitting their shots and helped their team reach 78 runs in just seven overs. While they were batting it felt like the target will be chased easily by Zalmi. But then came the twist, Haris got run out and Peshawar Zalmi lost their second wicket for 88 runs.

Zalmi then lost another wicket in quick succession as Usama Mir removed the in-form Tom Kohler-Cadmore for a single-digit score and forced the team to slip to 95/1 in the 11th over. Hard-hitting batter Rovman Powell then joined forces with Saim as the duo took Zalmi to 130 before Abbas Afridi broke the budding partnership by outfoxing the former on 23. Powell's departure triggered a collapse as the rest of the batting capitulated under pressure and couldn't really put up a resistance.

Mir completely changed the game in the 15th over when he dismissed Bhanuka Rajapaksa for 1 run and Saim Ayub for 53 runs. Zalmi couldn't recover from the blow and ended up falling 56 runs short of the target.

Brief Scores:

Multan Sultans: 210/3 (20 overs)

Rilee Rossouw 75(36), Mohammad Rizwan 66(42)
Salman Irshad 2/38, Sufiyan Muqeem 1/36

Peshawar Zalmi: 154/10 (18.5 overs)

Saim Ayub 53(37), Mohammad Haris 40(23)
Usama Mir 3/22, Ihsanullah 3/24