Karachi: James Neesham’s brilliant all-round show eased Peshawar Zalmi to a four-wicket win over Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League on Monday.
Neesham picked up the key wicket of his fellow New Zealander Martin Guptill inside the batting powerplay and top-scored with 37 off 23 balls as Peshawar chased down 155 with nine balls to spare.
Peshawar cruised to 157-6 after Quetta made 154-4.
Quetta was led by Iftikhar Ahmed, who notched 50 off 34 balls for his first half-century this season, and Odean Smith with a breezy 25.
Peshawar fast bowlers Arshad Iqbal, making his season debut, and Wahab Riaz dominated early, forcing the Quetta batters to take risks.
Clean bowled
After 117 on Saturday, Guptill scratched out 12 before holing out to midwicket off Neesham. Jason Roy was clean bowled by Usman Qadir’s googly, and captain Sarfaraz Ahmed was deceived by a slow Iqbal yorker after 39 off 30.
Iftikhar and Smith hit 43 off the final 19 balls to set a target.
Peshawar’s batters plundered spinners Qais Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz, while Mohammad Hasnain snared 3-13.
Neesham and Rovman Powell combined in a rapid 43-run stand to take the game away from Quetta. When they were dismissed by the 15th over, Peshawar needed just 21 more runs.
Wahab finished the game with two successive boundaries and Peshawar moved to second in the standings.
Quetta will take on defending champions the Lahore Qalandars on Tuesday. Both teams are at the bottom of the table.
