PSL 2026 2026, PZ vs RWP 3rd Match Match Report, March 28, 2026

Peshawar Zalmi 218 for 5 (Haris 47, Babar 39, Bracewell 35*, Samad 33, Butt 2-45) beat Rawalpindi Pindiz 214 for 4 (Yasir 83, Rizwan 41, Raza 2-42) by five wickets

A breathtaking fifth-wicket partnership of 64 runs from just 23 balls between Michael Bracewell (35 not out off 17) and Abdul Samad (33 from 11) secured an improbable win for Peshawar Zalmi in their PSL 2026 opener against debutants Rawalpindi Pindiz. Zalmi looked on course to lose in pursuit of 215 as they needed 74 from the last five overs with new batters at the crease after the wickets of Kusal Mendis and Aaron Hardie in the last two overs.

But in what was a sensational display of T20 power hitting, Bracewell and Samad plundered 18 and 16 runs off Rishad Hossain and Naseem Shah in the 16th and 17th overs, respectively. Both the bowlers had been very economical until then.

The victory seemed plausible when Samad, who hit four sixes in total, smashed Mohammad Amir for two sixes and a four in the 18th over. It became certain after Aamer Jamal (17 not out off five balls) smoked Naseem for a six and a four in the penultimate over which cost 20 runs, the most in the innings, to leave only one run required in the final over.

This is the first time Zalmi surmounted these many to win a PSL contest, and only the third time in PSL history that a target of 200 or more has been scaled at the Gaddafi Stadium. Zalmi had a promising start to the run chase, with their captain Babar Azam picking two boundaries off Amir in the first over with beautifully timed strokes through cover and midwicket.

Babar and his opening partner Mohammad Haris got boundaries regularly, and brought up a 50-run stand inside the fifth over. But they lost momentum from the sixth over onwards, and Zalmi did not score a boundary for 26 balls till the end of the ninth over, a by-product of which was Babar’s wicket. To compound their woes, Haris fell in the next over, and just when Kusal seemed to stabilise the chase, he also departed at the start of the 15th over.

That Pindiz acheived the first 200-plus score of the season was because of Yasir Khan’s blistering 46-ball 83, which was built with seven fours and six sixes. He started the contest with a towering maximum over square leg in the first over that forced the umpires to bring in a replacement ball. Yasir’s free-flowing innings allowed his former Multan Sultans opening partner Mohammad Rizwan time to settle as he struggled for fluency early on.

Rizwan came to party in the fourth over by hitting Ali Raza for four consecutive boundaries – two each behind square on off, and down the ground – in the fourth over. His 125-run stand with Yasir was scored at above ten runs an over, and it ended in the 13th over when Rizwan fell after scoring 41 off 32 balls.

But that wicket provided no relief to Zalmi as Kamran Ghulam, Daryl Mitchell, Sam Billings and Abdullah Fazal came out all guns blazing, and hit their first boundaries inside the first two balls they faced.

The last four overs brought 54 runs for Pindiz. But a target of 215 was always going to be challenging to defend on a featherbed. The Pindiz camp had a hunch that they were 15-20 runs short, which their head coach Justin Kemp and mentor Inzamam-ul-Haq made no secret of in their mid-innings interviews with the host broadcaster.

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