HBL PSL 2024: Van der Dussen ton in vain as Zalmi keep Qalandars winless

For all the grit and character that he showed here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday night, Rassie van der Dussen found himself stranded on the non-striker’s end just when he should have been on the opposite side.

The South African had fought hard to take his team, Lahore Qalandars, to touching distance of their first win of the ninth edition of the HBL Pakistan Super League, having scored a brilliant century against Peshawar Zalmi.

For all of that, van der Dussen managed to face just one ball in the final over, in which the Qalandars needed 18 runs. The South African took probably the worse decision of his whole innings accounting for an unbeaten 104 off 52 balls taking a single off the second ball.

All of that for him to see his team-mates Jahandad Khan and Sikandar Raza lose wickets on consecutive balls off pacer Paul Walter, and Carlos Brathwaite wrapping things up with a straight hit for six, which did not matter at all as Zalmi won by eight runs.

Defending champions Qalandars couldn’t have come closer to get their campaign off the mark after taking two titles on the trot and face losing out on a place in the playoffs as they struggle to cope with captain Shaheen Shah Afridi’s dipping form, Haris Rauf’s injury absence and the unavailability of strike bowler Rashid Khan.

Runs were scored in abundance against them on Sunday night, Zalmi amassing a relentless 211-4 on the back of a blistering 88 off 55 by Saim Ayub and crucial knocks from captain Babar Azam (48 off 36) and Rovman Powell (46 off 20).

With the bat, Lahore were much better, but they rode massively on the back of van der Dussen, who kept his cool and paced the chase with near-perfection before the hosts’ meltdown came in the final over.

Lahore had lost openers Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman early but van der Dussen had carried them to 56-2 by the end of the powerplay with Shai Hope at the other end.

After three overs without boundaries, Lahore managed one in the 10th to leave the scoreboard reading 84-2 at halfway stage with van der Dussen Hope trying to build a partnership.

Hope brought up the fifty for the pair with a six off Walter over square leg in the 11th over before van der Dussen registered his own half century as he smashed Walter for another maximum and followed that up with another boundary.