The Pakistan Super League tends to make the international news for the wrong reasons. Running parallel with the Indian Premier League, the comparative quality of the two tournaments has been a regular talking point, despite most pundits and experts agreeing that the depth of talent in the IPL is simply greater. This becomes a stick to beat the PSL with – especially when occurrences such as fielding mishaps take place.
A comedy of errors took place in Wednesday’s game between Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators, as a combination of yes-no-yes-no from the runners was met by a confusing decision made by the fielder to somehow miss the stumps on a run-out – all of this, on a free-hit.
In the first innings, Quetta tailenders Abrar Ahmed and Usman Tariq shared the crease late in the innings, when Abrar faced a free-hit from bowler Ali Raza after a waist-height no-ball. Abrar knocked it into the off-side and seemingly dawdled out of his crease, watching the ball, while his batting partner Tariq hared down the crease for the run.
At this point, Abrar refused the run despite being halfway down the pitch, forcing Tariq to turn back in the middle of no-man’s-land. Both batters could have been run out in this moment – but the one thing to be said is that the lax running might have confused even point fielder Farhan Yousaf.
PZ grab win despite mistake
Yousaf, who served as Pakistan’s U-19 captain earlier this year, collected the ball and took measure of the situation, before collecting and began to run towards the pitch. He seemingly couldn’t quite decide which stumps to throw to, so he looked quite lost as he took stock of his options.
Ultimately, Abrar made it back to his ground, so Yousaf attempted to pivot and throw it to the non-striker’s end. Despite being able to see all three stumps, Yousaf tried to throw while on the move and off-balance – and ended up missing the stumps altogether.
It was a bizarre moment, but ultimately one that didn’t affect the match much – Gladiators were only able to put up a sub-par 154, which leaders Zalmi didn’t break sweat in chasing down as Babar Azam scored 71*. Zalmi are now unbeaten in seven matches with 13 points, easily on top of the table.