Peshawar triumph after spectacular Lahore collapse

Peshawar Zalmi 166 for 6 (Kamran 58, Shakib 30, Yasir 2-19) beat Lahore Qalandars 149 for 9 (Tanvir 36*, Delport 32, Shakib 2-14) by 17 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

There must be something about Peshawar that sends jitters right through Lahore Qalandars. It wasn't quite as spectacular as 59 all out, but Lahore lost five wickets for one run as they collapsed around the spin of Shakib Al Hasan and Mohammad Hafeez in the Powerplay. They never quite recovered from 43 for 6, and though gritty partnerships between Aamer Yamin and Sunil Narine, and then Yasir Shah and Sohail Tanvir, ensured they wouldn't fold for two figures, Lahore's race was run well before the final lap.

It didn't always look this way. McCullum and Cameron Delport got off to a blazing start, Delport being the destroyer-in-chief as he hammered 22 off the young Mohammad Asghar's first over to take Lahore to 33 for no loss in two overs. But the innings unravelled thereafter, with five wickets falling in eight balls, including a catastrophic mix-up between McCullum and Umar Akmal that wouldn't have endeared the Pakistan batsman to the Lahore captain. The intensity fizzled out thereafter, and the jogging pace at which Peshawar played the rest of the contest was enough to secure them a 17-run win.

Peshawar weren't completely convincing when they batted, the first time the winners of a toss this tournament had elected to do so. While they had wickets in hand through the early parts of the innings, they never quite got going, thanks in part to a superb spell of legspin bowling from Yasir Shah that sucked the momentum out of their innings. But after a 16-run final over, Peshawar had 166 on the board.

Well, it's fairly obvious. Lahore's amazing meltdown came at a time when their position was the strongest it had been at any point during the contest. After restricting Peshawar to under 170, they had gotten off to a flyer, and with Delport going great guns, it had looked like McCullum might find the time to play himself into some form too. But from the moment the South African skied a short ball from Hasan Ali for a caught and bowled, panic and confusion reigned supreme, and Peshawar were canny enough to take full advantage.

That Peshawar got to 166 was due in large part to Kamran Akmal, who returned to form that had eluded him since the first match. Striking the ball sweetly down the ground, he anchored the first half of their innings, setting them up for what looked like a big total. He was helped by the indiscipline of Lahore's pacers, but was sharp enough to punish them for it every time. So good was Kamran that he scored 58 at a strike rate of 145 without hitting a single six in a chanceless innings.

The match saw two stumping dismissals, which doubled the number of batsmen falling in that fashion during the entire tournament. First, Kamran Akmal failed to drag his foot back in time during Peshawar's innings in what was a soft dismissal. Then, Yasir perished when he was beaten by a quicker delivery from Afridi that he tried to hit for six in the last over of the chase. The match in general was marked by batsmen not being able to stay in their crease, with two run-outs as well, with Afridi and McCullum the victims.

The manner in which the game went does not leave much opportunity to talk about Yasir, but that does not mean he was not splendid. The legspinner seems to have benefitted from McCullum's attacking leadership, and looked to take a wicket with every ball he bowled. The pitch offered plenty of assistance too, with Hafeez's dismissal a particularly memorable one. Yasir bowled what had looked like a poor delivery, a full ball pitching well outside leg stump. As Hafeez tried to sweep it for the boundary it seemingly deserved, it spun back in sharply, bowling a rather sheepish Hafeez around his legs.