LAHORE: Opening batters Jason Roy and Saud Shakeel shared a beefy 157-run stand as a reshuffled Quetta Gladiators made a triumphant start in the Pakistan Super League with a 16-run win over Peshawar Zalmi on Sunday.
Roy scored a breezy 75 off 48 balls and lefthander Shakeel, who waited for 33 games to get his first opportunity in the PSL, made an equally fine 74 off 47 deliveries that lifted Quetta to 206-5.
Babar Azam (68) and Saim Ayub (42) provided Peshawar with a brisk start of 90 off 51 balls before Peshawar’s chase got wobbled in the latter part of the innings and was eventually held to 190-6.
Quetta’s new captain Rilee Rossouw of South Africa was one of the major changes Quetta had made this season. It relieved its long-time skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed after failing to qualify for the playoffs for four successive seasons.
Quetta has also brought in the Australian duo of Shane Watson as its head coach and Shaun Tait as bowling coach while also picking Mohammad Amir in the draft for the first time after the left-arm pace bowler played the last eight seasons for Karachi Kings.
Amir (1-29) bowled brilliantly upfront and was duly rewarded with the late wicket of Rovman Powell in his last over.
Roy and Shakeel capitalized on Peshawar’s wayward pace bowling with fast bowler Aamer Jamal spraying the white-ball all over and Pakistan under-19 player, Mohammad Zeeshan, failing to hit the right lengths during the powerplay.
Jamal was taken off after going for 29 runs off his two overs, but Peshawar missed a specialist spinner in the middle overs to contain Quetta’s free-scoring openers.
Captain Babar’s decision to try out the offspin of Ayub also didn’t work out well as Shakeel smashed him for three straight sixes in one over and raised a strong opening stand with Roy off 92 balls.
Peshawar hit back briefly at the death through Salman Irshad (3-38) after Englishman Luke Wood broke the tall opening stand when Shakeel holed out to Babar. Roy was splendidly caught low at midwicket when he couldn’t clear Irshad’s low full toss as Quetta lost four wickets for 34 runs.
The needless run-out of Ayub in the ninth over got Peshawar off the hook and legspinner Abrar Ahmed (2-29) picked up the key wickets of Babar and Tom Kohler-Cadmore (18) in one over to seal the game for Quetta.