SHARJAH: One of the pleasing sights during Saturday’s night fixture between holders Peshawar Zalmi and Lahore Qalandars at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the HBL Pakistan Super League was the way Hasan Ali shaped up on his comeback from injury.
The Pakistan spearhead in limited-overs cricket immediately found his groove despite being sidelined for five weeks by an injury he picked up during the New Zealand tour.
Given their dismal form thus far, Lahore were unlikely to offer much resistance, not against Hasan in his pomp.
Liam Dawson was another star performer during the champions’ record 10-wicket victory by matching Hasan in the wicket-taking column. Both grabbed three apiece with the Englishman marking his PSL debut in great style when he was declared man-of-the-match.
“The lads were really keen to win this game because we have some issues with injuries. And Darren being not there, this [match] became important to beat Lahore. We knew that we needed to keep the pressure up against a side which is quite one-dimensional in its approach, with line of defence.”
and we knew it was a matter of only one wicket.
Brendon McCullum, on other hand, really had no answer to queries about Lahore’s unending batting debacles.
“No excuses really to offer after another tough day at the office. We’ve definitely taken a stride back, but we have a few days off and some tough calls need to be taken,” the captain vowed. “We’ve lost 35 wickets for 105 runs and with stats like these we are never going to win. We have to eradicate our thought process of ‘there it goes again’”.