LAHORE: Peshawar Zalmi captain Babar Azam termed winning his first Pakistan Super League (PSL) title as a captain as a “huge achievement” and credited every player in his team for executing plans in all three departments throughout the tournament.
Zalmi, who won the prestigious title for the first time in 2017 under West Indies legend Darren Sammy, finally had to wait nine years to add another piece of silverware to their trophy cabinet as a Babur-led side beat Hyderabad Kingsmen in the PSL 11 final at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday.
Zalmi skipper Babur’s decision to bat first at the summit paid off as the Kingsmen were bowled out for 129 in 18 overs despite a cautious half-century from Saim Ayub.
In turn, the Kingsmen’s in-form pace attack decimated Zalmi’s top order, but an 85-run partnership between Aaron Hardy and Abdul Samad laid a solid foundation for their highly-rewarded victory.
Reflecting on his team’s title-drought-ending win, captain Babbar termed it a huge achievement for him and the franchise, before praising his teammates for performing their assigned roles efficiently throughout the tournament in all three departments.
“This is a huge achievement for me and Peshawar Zalmi and all the fans. Throughout the tournament, we performed well as a team. We enjoyed our cricket,” Babar said in the post-match presentation.
“Every player executed the plans given to them in terms of batting, bowling and fielding. Our plan was to go competitively. Thank God we won today,” he added.
The captain particularly praised Zalmi’s management led by head coach Otis Gibson for highlighting the positives in every team discussion.
“Management took positives in every match discussion and we focused on that. We went match by match and planned every game after the last one,” Babar said.
“We played back and forth. We played four games in six days. But we were determined to give our best,” he added.
Although Babar suffered a rare defeat as he fell to a golden duck in the final, the right-handed batsman finished as the leading run-scorer in PSL 11 with 588 runs in 11 innings, equaling Lahore Qalandars’ all-time record.
As a result, the 31-year-old bagged the prestigious Hanif Mohammed cap for leading runs and was also adjudged the best batsman of the eight-team tournament.
“My own form, I wanted to get it back. In this PSL, I tried to give my best and luckily I was able to.”