"Hundred are brilliant, but it still must be team first"- Simon Doull slams Babar Azam while commentary for slow PSL century
It was Peshawar skipper Babar Azam who won the toss and decided to bat first. The first inning was a total run fest. Batting first, Peshawar scored the third-highest PSL total ever, courtesy of a brilliant century from skipper Babar Azam. He smashed a 60-ball hundred.
He scored 115 off 65 balls, with 15 fours and three sixes, to help his team reach a mammoth score of 240/2. Saim Ayub scored 74 off 34, and Rovman Powell (35* off 18) played a brilliant cameo. But that happiness didn't last long, as the second inning saw an even better batting performance.
Jason Roy smashed the Peshawar bowlers into all parts of the ground. He scored a 48-ball hundred, carried his bat through the entire inning, and remained unbeaten at 145 off 63 balls, including 20 fours and five sixes. Quetta reached 243/2 in just 18.2 overs and registered the highest ever PSL chase.
However, former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull, who is part of the commentary panel in the ongoing PSL, takes an indirect dig at Babar Azam's great but slow inning. During the commentary, Doull said,
"The last little while, that’s all that has been happening rather than looking for boundaries still, when you’ve got so much firepower to come. Hundreds are great, stats are brilliant, but it still must be team first.”
During his inning, Babar was on 86 runs off 49 balls at the end of the 14 overs and took another 11 balls to complete the remaining 14 runs for his century. He even defended a ball from Naseem Shah when he was on 99.
Meanwhile, it was the first century for the 28-year-old in the PSL, and overall, it was his 8th century in T20 cricket. With this century, he joined an elite list with the likes of David Warner, Aaron Finch, and Michael Kininger, with 8 hundred in the shorter format. Chris Gayle, with 22 T20 centuries, is only above these batters.