Australian veteran Brad Hodge blasted away Karachi Kings and won a game that was heading nowhere in a matter of minutes as Peshawar Zalmi won by 5 wickets at the Dubai Cricket Stadium and took the top spot in PSL on Wednesday.
Karachi were reeling at 69-4 in the 12th over when Brad Hodge played a crazy, care-free inning. He hit 6 sixes and as many fours in his unbeaten 45 ball 85 run knock to chase down Karachi’s total of 152-7 with 1 and a half over to spare.
Hodge took leg spinner Usama Mir to the bushes when he smashed him for 3 sixes and a four in the 16th over to bring down the equation to 32 off 24 balls. The next over was dispatched for 14 runs to make it a run-a-ball situation. Darren Sammy then hit a massive 6 and won Peshawar the game in his signature style.
Earlier, Lendl Simmons (49) anchored the Karachi innings along with Ravi Bopara (23) to help his side post 152 on the board. But the middle order tumbled largely because of an all-round bowling display where 5 of the 6 bowlers used by Shahid Afridi struck with one wicket apiece.
Mohammad Amir and Bilawal Bhatti took situation under control and dismissed both the Peshawar openers for a score of 25 with 5 overs gone. Australian recruit Jim Allenby tried to resurrect the innings in his 31 run knock but his dismissal, followed by Shahid Afridi’s wicket meant that the Zalmis were 69-4 until Brad Hodge played an innings of sheer determination combined with skills and strength to see his side home.
Karachi will now have to hope for the already-out Lahore Qalandars to win the second match of the night against Islamabad United to qualify for the play offs.