Dubai Thirty-five-year-old left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir hasn’t been picked for the Pakistan team for international matches since 2017 but on Wednesday night he proved how deadly a pacer he can be by taking four wickets for just 13 runs to bowl Multan Sultans to a six-wicket win over Peshawar Zalmi.
Tanvir made the home crowd at the Multan Cricket Stadium happy as the Sultans bowled out Peshawar for just 123 in 18.3 overs. Among Tanvir’s wicket was Peshawar’s last match hero Kamaran Akmal, fresh from his century against Quetta Gladiators. Multan reached the target in 14.5 overs through Rileee Rossouw’s unbeaten 49 off 42 balls with seven boundaries and one six and Khushdil Shah’s 43 off just 29 balls with four boundaries and two sixes
Peshawar, who have one of the finest batting line-ups, found the going tough from the start. Opener Tom Banton got out to Mohammad Irfan for 4. At the score on 35, Akmal became Tanvir’s first victim for 15 runs. Experienced Shoaib Mali could score just two runs before failing to Mohammad Illyas. If not for 19-year-old Haider Ali’s 47 runs and Liam Dawson’s 22 runs, Multan may have been bowled out for less than 100 runs. Irfan and Illyas took two wickets each.
Multan lost opener James Vince for 5 and his partner Moeen Ali for 2 and also captain Shan Masood for 8 but Rossouw and Shah stead their innings and put on an unbeaten 77 runs partnership to take the team to the target.
Brief scores
Multan Sultans bt Peshawar Zalmi by 6 wkts
Peshawar 123 in 18.3 overs (Haider Ali 47, Liam Dawson 22; Sohail Tanvir 4 for 13, Mohammad Ilyas 2 for 23, Mohammad Irfan 2 for 31)
Multan 124-4 in 14.5 overs (Rilee Rossouw 49n.o, Khushdil Shah 43n.o; Wahab Riaz 2 for 36)
