Joseph, Babar and Talat lead Zalmi to serene win

Lahore Qalandars fell flat in their first game at home as a half-century from Babar Azam helped Peshawar Zalmi sweep to victory at the Gaddafi Stadium. Alzarri Joseph and Luke Wood cut the Qalandars top and middle order to ribbons, reducing them to 21 for 4. It was only a rearguard half-century from Sikandar Raza that got the Qalandars to a somewhat competitive total, his 37-ball 52 alongside stodgy resistance from the lower order carrying Shaheen Afridi's men to 129.

It was just enough to give Zalmi a brief scare in the powerplay against an on-song Shaheen and Haris Rauf, who reduced the visitors to 40 for 3. But an unbroken 93-run partnership between Babar and Hussain Talat allayed any fears of a collapse. With run rate never an issue, Zalmi eased to their target with 20 balls to spare.

Babar won the toss and opted to put the Qalandars in, his bowlers backing him up right from the outset. A pair of boundaries from Fakhar Zaman offered the falsest of dawns before Zalmi stormed through. Four wickets fell for six runs as Fakhar, Asif Ali, Abdullah Shafique and Daryl Mitchell all departed before breakout star Ali Raza drew an edge from Sam Billings that Babar comfortably held on to.

Shaheen came out and struck a couple of sixes, but never looked like he had staying power, and was gone off the tenth ball he faced. It was left to birthday boy Raza to manage the innings as he balanced farming the strike with taking risks, gently leading the Qalandars out of the mire. He targeted Arif Yaqoob and Mitchell Owen, with the Australian conceding 17 in the 17th over to move the Qalandars beyond 120, and Raza past his half-century with three overs to go. But an excellent final over from Joseph kept Qalandars to just two in the 18th, before Ali Raza's 19th starved Raza of the strike. Frustrated, the Zimbabwean fell off the first ball of the 20th, and the Qalandars were bowled out two balls later.

With the crowd filling up - it is always fuller at the Gaddafi than anywhere else in Pakistan - the home side's new-ball pair offered a glimmer of hope, Shaheen and Haris removing Saim Ayub and Tom Kohler-Cadmore within the first nine deliveries. Haris's phenomenally intense first over threatened to blast through more batters, with Babar and Mohammad Haris looking vulnerable. But the pair held on, and with Rauf mysteriously taken out of the attack after one over, settled.

He would return for the final over of the Powerplay and once more went after Babar. A bouncer Babar couldn't control flew over the keeper for six before he was struck on the pads with the umpire raising his finger, only for DRS to save the Zalmi captain on height by inches. Babar followed up with a lovely drive to third for four, and on that dime, the fortunes of the game began to tilt.

Talat isn't a powerful striker, but had the space and time to ease into his innings with no scoreboard pressure. The Qalandars struggled to keep up the intensity of the Powerplay and Babar's mastery in low chases began to overpower them. He found the odd boundary while expertly negotiating Rishad Hossain on a slightly turning pitch, and at some indefinable point, the chase became a cakewalk.

Babar, getting through a rerun of the innings he has played countless times, eased to a 37-ball half-century with a flick off Asif Afridi. Talat applied the icing on the cake with a pair of boundaries off Rauf who had long lost his potency, bringing up the victory, as well as his own half-century, as Zalmi moved up to fourth, ahead of the Qalandars on net run rate. Zalmi may well be resurrecting their campaign at the Qalandars' expense.