Hardie leads Peshawar to first PSL cricket title

Aaron Hardie’s brilliant all-round performance led Peshawar Zalmi to its first Pakistan Super League cricket title since 2017 with a five-wicket win over newcomer Hyderabad Kingsmen in the final.

Hardie grabbed 4-27 to bowl out Hyderabad for a below-par 129 all out in 18 overs, with Saim Ayub (54) scoring a fighting half-century. Hardie then hit a fluent 56 not out off 39 balls and anchored Peshawar to 130-5 in 15.2 overs in front of a packed crowd at Gaddafi Stadium.

“It’s a very big achievement for me, for Peshawar Zalmi and all the fans,” said Peshawar captain Babar Azam after winning his first PSL title as skipper. “Throughout the tournament, we’ve performed really well as a team … every player executed the plans they were given in batting, bowling, and fielding. Our plan was to go match by match.”

Peshawar, which won the toss and chose to chase, had slumped to 40-4 inside the first five overs after losing tournament top run-scorer Babar for a golden duck while Mohammad Haris, Kusal Mendis and Michael Bracewell also fell for single-digit scores.

But Hardie, who smashed nine fours, then combined in a match-winning stand of 85 runs with Abdul Samad (48), who missed out on his half century before holing out in the deep when Peshawar needed only five runs for victory. “It was just a great game of cricket,” Hardie said.

“Kingsmen came out of the blocks really hard. They’ve certainly had a lot of momentum from the last couple of games and they carried that in, but I’m really proud of the way the boys were able to fight back.”

Peshawar was favorite for the title after it lost only one game in the tournament with Babar, who scored two centuries, equaling Fakhar Zaman’s PSL record of 588 runs in one edition of the tournament.

Hyderabad had a productive power play of 69-2 despite Hardie having captain Marnus Labuschagne (20) caught behind of a rising delivery and Maaz Sadaqat’s early aggression was cut short to just 11 runs when he half-heartedly pulled pace bowler Mohammad Basit to deep backward square leg in the first over.

However, Hyderabad lost momentum and crashed to 73-6 in the space of nine balls after the power play for just two runs.

The slide began when Usman Khan, coming into the final with half-centuries in the last three successive games, was trapped leg before wicket by the tournament’s leading wicket-taker Sufyan Moqim (1-23).

Irfan Khan and Kusal Perera were run out to some sharp fielding by Bracewell and between those dismissals, Glenn Maxwell was undone by Nahid Rana’s (2-22) pace and got caught first ball while going for a pull against the Bangladesh fast bowler.

Ayub stretched the total beyond the 100-run mark with a knock of 54 off 50 balls before he fell in Hardie’s last over as he top-edged a pull to mid-on before the fast bowler wrapped up the innings by having No. 11 batter Akif Javed caught behind.

“As a batting group, we probably left a few runs out there,” Labuschagne said.

“We showed once again that belief in the side and what we can do, putting them four for 40, but just not enough runs on the board tonight.”

Hyderabad had a fairytale run in the tournament when it came back strongly after losing its first four league games and also knocked out both former champions Multan Sultans and Islamabad United in the playoffs.

“Tonight hurts,” Labuschagne said. “But reflecting on what an amazing tournament we’ve put together, coming from four losses to winning four in a row, getting bowled out for 80, then winning by 100, and then winning two games to get into the final. We’ve made so many great memories and I’m just so proud of the team, it’s been an awesome effort.”