Kamran Akmal lit up National Stadium Karachi Saturday with a blistering ton as Peshawar Zalmi overwhelmed Quetta Gladiators to register first win of the PSL season Saturday.

Kamran raced to his third PSL century in 54 balls when he took two runs in 17th over on bowling of Fawad Ahmed. But on very next ball he gave away his wicket as well. Kamran scored 101 runs and hit 13 boundaries and four sixes to help Zalmi register a comfortable six wicket win by chasing down a target of 149 in just 18.3 overs.

Earlier, Kamran raced to his fifty in just 20 balls, the third fastest in the PSL and took another 34 balls to reach his century. Kamran is the only player in the PSL with multiple centuries. Once he was looked set to break the fastest PSL century score record set by Cameron Delport in previous edition but when he was dropped on 94 by Nawaz off Sohail Khan’s bowling he went a bit cautious and took his sweet time to reach three figures.

Fawad finished with 2-40 in his 3.3 overs with Tyle Mills and Sohail Khan taking one wicket each for 25 and 27 runs respectively.

Earlier, Peshawar Zalmi bowlers put up a disciplined effort in their second match of the Pakistan Super Le ague 2020 edition at National Stadium Karachi to restrict Quetta Gladiators to 148-5.

A night earlier Zalmi bowlers were smashed all over the ground by Karachi Kings and conceded 200 runs in their first match, which they eventually lost.

Defending champion Quetta Gladiators had also struggled against Islamabad United in their first match but overcome to start the title defence on a winning note. The same struggle of their batsmen was evident in the second match as well as they failed to play freely or make impact partnerships to put up a high total on the board.

However, Zalmi batting was not that on top in their loss to Karachi Kings despite going close in a high scoring thriller as it was individual brilliance in patches that brought them close to the line. This time too only Kamran AKmal seemed to make the difference as other batsmen did not look into touch to play big innings.

Jasson Roy put the failure in first match, where he got out for a duck, behind him and played a solid and composed unbeaten innings of 73 off 57 balls. However, he seemed too cautious in building up his innings and went after the bowlers after crossing his 50. He hit six boundaries and a six. Former Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed played a joyful knock of 41 off 25 balls with a strike rate of 162 and hit five boundaries and a six.

Last match batting hero for Gladiators Azam Khan failed this time miserably as he could score only five runs off nine balls before being clean bowled by Wahab Riaz. Shane Watosn still looked quite rusty and far from the form which he had shown in previous four editions and played key role in Gladiators victories. He was succumbed to his old nemesis Wahab yet again when Hasan Ali caught him. He scored eight runs off 10 balls. Ahmed Shahzad also flopped again scoring 12 runs in as many deliveries that also included a six.

Wahab was the most successful bowler for Zalmi as he finished with figures of 2-21 in four overs. Darren Sammy took 1-9, M Amir Khan 1-24 and Rahat Ali 1-38. Hasan Ali remained wicketless but was economical for his four overs as he conceded only 22 runs. Liam Dawson finished with 0-31 in his three overs.