Babar and Talat star as Peshawar beat Lahore
Babar Azam and Hussain Talat struck unbeaten half-centuries as Peshawar Zalmi beat Lahore Qalanders by seven wickets in the Pakistan Super League.Captain Babar hit 56 off 42 from the top of the order, while Talat joined him for a 37-ball 51 as Peshawar reached passed their target of 130 in the 17th over.Lahore had a horrific start having been put into bat, crashing to 34-5 inside the powerplay and then 67-7.Alzarri Joseph was the pick of the Peshawar bowlers, taking 3-15, while England seamer Luke Wood finished with figures of 2-25.Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza was dismissed by Talat in the final over having hit 52 from 37 to help take the home side to 129, as they were bowled out with four balls to spare.However he was the only Lahore batter to pass 16, with England's Sam Billings (9) one of five batters to be removed for single figures.Peshawar were 7-2 in the second over of their reply, with Saim Ayub caught for two and Tom Kohler-Cadmore bowled by Haris Rauf for a four-ball duck.But an unbroken 93 partnership for the fourth wicket took Peshawar to victory, with Hussain finishing the match and reaching his 50 with consecutive fours.The win takes Peshawar level on points with Lahore with two wins and three defeats apiece, but Qalanders sit in third one place above their opponents thanks to their superior net run-rate.Scorecard, PSL fixtures & results, table
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The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Luke Wood takes England return in his stride after ‘weird' PSL experience
Nerves were never likely to be an issue on Luke Wood's England comeback, with the left-armer returning to the fold just a month after he was caught up in the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan. Wood was playing for Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League when political tensions between the two nations developed into military clashes over the disputed Kasmir region, forcing both the PSL and Indian Premier League to be suspended. Overseas players left the country as concerns grew, but the Lancashire seamer was among those who returned to finish the tournament after a short hiatus, playing two more games in Rawalpindi. With that experience in his recent past, the 29-year-old was unlikely to be fazed by his return to the international stage after 21 months. He made the perfect start in Sunday's series-clinching T20 win over the West Indies, pinning Evin Lewis lbw with his very first ball, and was later named player of the match after taking two for 25 in a contest dominated by the bat. 'It was a weird dynamic to be in. You don't know what to believe and we get told to wait for the facts from certain people,' he said of his interrupted stay at the PSL. 'When we left it was the right time to go, but credit to them for making it a safe place for people to come back to. 'I understand the lads with young families might not have wanted to go back for certain reasons, but, for me personally, once I was told it was fine I was happy to go back and credit to them for getting it on. 'As players we're there to play cricket. If it's not safe we go, if it is safe we play. It hasn't put me off at all, it's part and parcel of the world. Pakistan and India have disagreements over that piece of land. 'This time it extended a bit too far for what we would like, but it's nothing you can control. The security they have in Pakistan is amazing and they looked after us really well. That's all you can ask for.' Wood was described as a 'point of difference' by captain Harry Brook, with his left-arm angle and ability to bowl fast, swinging yorkers making him a potent threat with the new ball. He has a happy knack of striking with the opening delivery of the innings too, Lewis' dismissal following in the footsteps of Tim Seifert and Ben McDermott at the PSL. 'It's a method I've got, I pride myself on starting well,' he said. 'That is a big thing for me and it's big for the team, to set the tone well. That's what my main role is. Warm-up wise, before a game, I do everything I can to be really ready for that first ball. it's not a loosener, it's full on. 'A lot of my strength is up front, a lot of the stuff I bowl in my warm-up is focused around that first ball. 'But I don't want to be pigeon-holed as someone who just bowls at the start, I've always said that, and I'll work on what I need to work on to become just as well renowned at the death too.' The West Indies tour concludes with Tuesday's third T20 in Southampton, when England will be hoping to wrap up a second series sweep in a row under Brook's captaincy.
The Guardian
30-05-2025
- The Guardian
Have bat, will travel: Raza and cricket's wanderers follow in footsteps of WG Grace
Do you remember the first of Zimbabwe's three ODIs against Bangladesh in 2022? No? Let me refresh your memory. Bangladesh's batters had racked up 303 for two. Zimbabwe had lost both openers by the end of their second over. They were 62 for three when Sikandar Raza came to the crease. He scored 135 of the 240 runs the home side needed and Zimbabwe won with nearly two overs to spare. Raza rescued them in the ODI that followed, too – another century – and ended up top-scoring in Zimbabwe's first series win in three years. The then 36-year-old put his determined spirit down to his training in the Pakistan Air Force: 'I couldn't become a fighter pilot,' he said, 'but I think, as a person, I will always be a fighter.' Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion There's plenty of dash about him – but this week it was literal. On Saturday afternoon he was scoring a half-century for his country in a Test match against England at Trent Bridge. Twenty-four hours later he was hitting the winning runs at the Pakistan Super League final in Lahore. The journey – he flew economy – included a near 100-mile drive between the Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports. Next time he should borrow an F-16. Raza's feat has raised cheers and eyebrows in equal measure. For some – especially delighted Lahore Qalandars fans – it is the ultimate heroic expression of club commitment. For others it is one more harbinger of a cricket calendar ready to collapse from franchise overload (it's worth noting that the all-rounder had already forgone this year's Tests against Ireland and Bangladesh for his PSL commitments). Imad Wasim, who played for more franchise teams than any other player in 2023 and 2024, summed up Raza's decision thus: 'If you're getting paid, you'll go.' Concerns are understandable. The fixture crush (and sums on offer) leave players subject to temptation and the matches themselves open to abuse. Sri Lanka Cricket were certainly unimpressed earlier this year by the behaviour of Dasun Shanaka, whose first-class side, Singhalese Sports Club, had recalled him from the ILT20 league in Dubai. You might argue that the all-rounder had done all he could on his mercy mission to help them avoid relegation, hitting 123 off 87 balls at No 7. By the time he was out, mid-morning on day three, he'd dragged SSC back into contention. And then, at lunchtime, he vanished from the ground. A concussion substitute had been agreed after he was hit playing a sweep shot, which made it even stranger when he showed up that night in Dubai, a four-and-a-half-hour flight away, batting for his ILT20 team. His 34 off 12 deliveries helped Dubai Capitals to victory and never has a doctor's note seemed more convenient. Shanaka insisted that he had told SSC he was leaving early, but Sri Lanka Cricket still fined him $10,000. But it's easy to shake heads, wag fingers and ignore that this dilemma is as old as the sport itself. Overlapping obligations are baked into cricket's history, including one of its greatest origin stories of all. WG Grace did not live in an era when he could jump in a jumbo and race above the clouds to his next fixture, but he did a good job of maximising the rail and stagecoach routes. On Friday 11 August 1876, MCC had been asked to follow on in their second innings against Kent and Grace's next game for Gloucestershire was already in the back of his mind. 'As I had to play at Bristol the following Monday, and did not think we could save the match, I meant to get home as soon as possible. Consequently I opened my shoulders to the bowling.' Talk about unintended consequences: hHe had hit a hundred by the close and spent Saturday racking up the first triple-century in first-class cricket. It took him most of Sunday to get back from Canterbury. He opened the batting against Nottinghamshire on Monday morning and scored 177 (including an all-run seven). After taking eight wickets on the Wednesday he headed out to bat the following day at Cheltenham, and finished with another triple-century. Those 839 runs in eight days were the beginning of his legend. In 1962, Garry Sobers was determined to squeeze in every innings he could as South Australia's 'guest player'. Due to play in West Indies's first Test against India on Friday 16 February, he spent the Monday compiling 251 in a Sheffield Shield match against Richie Benaud's New South Wales, and the Tuesday taking six for 72 to secure the game. The 55-hour journey from Adelaide to Trinidad was one of the longest flight routes in existence – and Sobers just made it on to the field. And what of Graham Gooch? He, too, was determined to give his all both to club and country in 1988, when the fifth and final day of the Sri Lanka Test clashed with the opening day of Essex's title-chasing match against Surrey. Happily, both matches were in London. Unhappily, England failed to wrap up their game at Lord's before lunch as they should have done. Essex, fielding only 10 men, watched Darren Bicknell and Alec Stewart put on a century partnership at the Oval as Gooch sweated in the Lord's turret. Even worse, when England did finally get the single run they needed for victory, the presentation was delayed because the BBC, who insisted on showing it live, was waiting for Neighbours to finish. It just goes to show that – to paraphrase St Paul – while all things are possible, they're not all profitable. That was certainly the conclusion Sunil Narine came to when contemplating the 9,000-mile round trip between Dallas and Birmingham required to get him from Major League Cricket to the Vitality Blast finals day two summers ago. Perhaps Shakib Al Hasan learned it too, after flying all the way to the UK for a single championship game last September and finding himself with a ban for an illegal bowling action. Time to think global, play local …
BBC News
25-05-2025
- BBC News
Zimbabwe's Raza flies in to take Lahore to PSL title
Pakistan Super League, LahoreQuetta Gladiators 201-9 (20 overs): Hasan 76 (43); Shaheen 3-24Lahore Qalandars 204-4 (19.5 overs): K Perera 62* (31), Raza 22* (7)Lahore Qalandars won by six wicketsScorecard Sikandar Raza hit the winning runs to win Lahore Qalanders the Pakistan Super League, a little more than 24 hours after he was playing for Zimbabwe against England in their Test loss at Trent all-rounder struck a six and a four from consecutive deliveries to take Lahore to victory against Quetta Gladiators with one ball to 202 for victory, Raza joined Kusal Perera at the crease with 20 balls remaining and the pair staged an unbroken 59-run partnership to complete the highest chase in a PSL scored 201-9 after winning the toss, with Hasan Nawaz striking a 43-ball 76, while star Lahore seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi took topped the regular season table while Lahore finished fourth, but the Qalanders won three consecutive knockout games to seal their third title in four to follow. Who led the individual standings at the 2025 Pakistan Super League? Most runs1. Sahibzada Farhan (Islamabad United) - 449 runs2. Fakhar Zaman (Lahore Qalanders) - 4393. Hasan Nawaz (Quetta Gladiators) - 3994. James Vince (Karachi Kings) - 3785. Abdullah Shafique (Lahore Qalanders) - 376Most wickets1. Shaheen Shah Afridi (Lahore Qalanders)=2. Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf (both Quetta Gladiators), Hasan Ali, Abbas Afridi (both Karachi Kings), Haris Rauf (Lahore Qalanders) - 17
