ISLAMABAD: Peshawar Zalmi continued their impressive run of form on Monday by beating Multan Sultans by seven wickets at their home ground, effectively keeping their hopes of qualifying for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) playoffs stage alive. 

The Sultans batted first at their home turf but were unable to impress, losing a flurry of wickets as Zalmi bowlers kept on taking breakthroughs at regular intervals. The only signs of resistance came from Shai Hope, who top-scored for the Sultans with 23 runs while middle-order batter Tayyab Tahir made 22. 

Zalmi’s Ahmad Daniyal was the pick of the bowlers, returning figures of 3/17 from four overs while Luke Wood and Maaz Sadaqat picked two wickets each to ensure the Sultans were bowled out for 108 runs in 19.1 overs. 

“In the 25th match of Pakistan Super League, Peshawar Zalmi defeated Multan Sultans by seven wickets in Multan last night,” Radio Pakistan reported. 

Zalmi chased the total in 13 overs with seven wickets to spare. Explosive opening batter Saim Ayub scored 49 runs from 33 balls while Max Bryant remained unbeaten on 38 from 20 balls. 

Zalmi captain Babar Azam scored 8 runs from 13 balls while Mitchell Owen scored only one run from two balls. For the Sultans, Shahid Aziz returned figures of 2/17 from three overs while David Willey finished with 1/9 from his single over. 

The “Yellow Storm” remain at number five on the PSL points table with four wins from a total of eight matches. The top four teams will qualify for the PSL playoffs. 

If Zalmi qualify for the playoffs, Azam’s team will remain the only one to qualify for every playoff since the edition began in 2016. 

Zalmi will next play Karachi Kings on Thursday before taking on former two-time PSL champions Lahore Qalandars on Friday.