Babar Azam led Peshawar Zalmi crashed out of PSL 8 in the 3rd play-off match against Lahore Qalandars. After beating Islamabad United by 12-runs in the play-off before they faced Lahore, Peshawar Zalmi were expected to go through to the Finals to take on Multan Sultans but Qalandars saw off Zalmi’s by 4-wickets.
Peshawar Zalmi had actually won the toss and elected to bat first with hopes of capitalizing on his team’s Batting firepower. Skipper Babar Azam himself is the leading run-scorer of PSL 8 with 522 runs under his belt in just 11 fixtures.
Although he was not able to replicate his own form in the play-off as he could only score as much as 42 runs off 26 balls, missing out on a knockout batting masterclass. After the loss, Azam appeared in front of the Press and reflected up on his own form, mindset and the other things which can he look back to and correct.
150kph delivery by the best fast-bowler of PSL 8? No problem for Babar Azam. 👑#HBLPSL8 | #PSL2023 | #PZvMSpic.twitter.com/ZqTtlRbTEe
— Grassroots Cricket (@grassrootscric) March 10, 2023
In his own words, the 28-year-old said that his side should have tried to turn the tables and make a comeback in the final stages of the game but it was all too late. “It was a good journey, but unfortunately, we couldn’t finish. We didn’t perform as well as we should have but made a comeback in the second half, and everyone tried to learn and gave their 100 percent. Happy with the form but disappointed that it didn’t help the team win. I will look back and see what I can do better.”
sublime,perfect,descent,class,elegant, marvelous,legendary,
its the Babar azam for you,the king of PSL 👑
who is Simon Doull ? pic.twitter.com/rQUAMCvATe— $hany (@itsShany7) March 9, 2023
Babar Azam also spoke about the talented young players he played with this season like Saim Ayub and Mohammad Haris as the Pakistani captain appreciated their flexibility and efforts to win matches after matches.
“We sent Mohammad Haris to open, but then we changed our planning against Lahore and went with a left-right combination (Babar-Saim) given how Shaheen gives a tough time to right-handers, and that is why we changed our combination a little bit, and Haris responded positively to the shuffle in the batting line-up, and this is what we are trying to inculcate in our players which is to perform in different scenarios.” – Babar concluded
