Babar Azam's feast or famine form continued today in the PSL when he was trapped lbw by David Willey for two runs in Peshawar Zalmi's game against Multan Sultans.
Babar was pinned on the back leg by Willey after missing a forward defense. Despite referring the on-field umpire's decision upstairs, Babar had to go back for a five-ball three as the ball was hitting the top of middle stump. It worsened an already bad start for Peshawar Zalmi, who had lost Saib Ayub in the second over bowled by Michael Bracewell. Babar's wicket left them 5-2 at the start of the third over.
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Match 9, Peshawar Zalmi vs Multan Sultans
That dismissal marks a third low score in a row in the PSL for Babar. He was out for a duck in his first innings of the tournament, chipping a ball to extra cover in the first over of a massive chase against Quetta Gladiators. He was the out for one off three balls in Peshawar's second game, this time nicking behind to first slip.
In his previous innings before the PSL, Babar hit a half-century for Pakistan in their final ODI in New Zealand. He struck a 58-ball 50 and top-scored in their last innings of the tour, which ended in a 3-0 defeat in the ODI series.
In T20s, Babar's last half-century came in May 2024, against Ireland in Dublin where he scored 75 off 42. Since then, he has batted 15 times and has managed to go past 40 only twice, with a high score of 44. On the other hand, six of these 15 outings have produced single-digit scores.
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Despite the early losses of Babar and Ayub against Multan Sultans, Peshawar Zalmi went on to make 227-7 in their innings. English batter Tom Kohler-Cadmore struck a 30-ball 52, while Abdul Samad brought an explosion of runs at the end of the innings with 40 off 14 balls
So far in Multan Sultan's response, Mohammad Rizwan was out trying to slog-sweep Ayub in the fourth over of the chase, with Shai Hope and Usman Khan having put on 35 runs together at the time of writing.
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