{"id":6459,"date":"2026-05-04T10:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/all-round-hero-hardie-helps-babar-azams-peshawar-zalmi-win-psl-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:35:17","slug":"all-round-hero-hardie-helps-babar-azams-peshawar-zalmi-win-psl-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/all-round-hero-hardie-helps-babar-azams-peshawar-zalmi-win-psl-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"All-round hero Hardie helps Babar Azam\u2019s Peshawar Zalmi win PSL 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Aaron Hardie\u2019s brilliant all-round performance ensured Peshawar Zalmi clinched their second Pakistan Super League cricket title with a five-wicket win over newcomers Hyderabad Kingsmen, despite an early wobble in the run chase in the final.<\/p>\n

Hardie grabbed 4-27 to bowl out Hyderabad for a below-par 129 all out in 18 overs and then hit a fluent 56 not out off 39 balls to anchor Peshawar to 130-5 in 15.2 overs, in front of a packed crowd at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Sunday.<\/p>\n

It completed a redemption arc for Peshawar\u2019s captain Babar Azam, who finished the franchise-based T20 tournament as its leading run-scorer after finding himself in and out of Pakistan\u2019s T20 squad in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very big achievement for me, for Peshawar Zalmi and all the fans,\u201d Babar said after winning his first PSL title as skipper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the tournament, we\u2019ve performed really well as a team \u2026 Every player executed the plans they were given in batting, bowling, and fielding. Our plan was to go match by match.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pakistan\u0092s
Peshawar Zalmi captain Babar Azam celebrates after receiving the trophy [Arif Ali\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The crowd at the Gaddafi Stadium in Babar\u2019s hometown chanted his name and erupted in joy when Hardie scored the winning runs for the team in yellow and pink kits.<\/p>\n

Peshawar, who won the toss and chose to chase, had slumped to 40-4 inside the first five overs after losing Babar for a golden duck, while Mohammad Haris, Kusal Mendis, and Michael Bracewell also fell for single-digit scores.<\/p>\n

But Hardie, who smashed nine fours, then combined in a match-winning stand of 85 runs with Abdul Samad (48), who missed out on his half-century before holing out in the deep when Peshawar needed only five runs for victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a great game of cricket,\u201d Hardie said. \u201cKingsmen came out of the blocks really hard. They\u2019ve certainly had a lot of momentum from the last couple of games and they carried that in, but I\u2019m really proud of the way the boys were able to fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Peshawar
Aaron Hardie, left, was named the player of the final [Arif Ali\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Peshawar were favourites for the title after losing only one game in the tournament, with Babar, who scored two centuries, equalling Fakhar Zaman\u2019s PSL record of 588 runs in one edition of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Saim Ayub (54) scored a fighting half-century to help Hyderabad post 129.<\/p>\n

Hyderabad had a productive power play of 69-2, despite Hardie having captain Marnus Labuschagne (20) caught behind off a rising delivery, and Maaz Sadaqat\u2019s early aggression was cut short to just 11 runs when he half-heartedly pulled pace bowler Mohammad Basit to deep backward square leg in the first over.<\/p>\n

However, Hyderabad lost momentum and crashed to 73-6 in the space of nine balls after the power play for just two runs.<\/p>\n

The slide began when Usman Khan, coming into the final with half-centuries in the last three successive games, was trapped leg before wicket by the tournament\u2019s leading wicket-taker Sufyan Moqim (1-23).<\/p>\n

Irfan Khan and Kusal Perera were run out due to some sharp fielding by Bracewell, and between those dismissals, Glenn Maxwell was undone by Nahid Rana\u2019s (2-22) pace and got caught first ball while going for a pull against the Bangladesh fast bowler.<\/p>\n

Ayub stretched the total beyond the 100-run mark with a knock of 54 off 50 balls before he fell in Hardie\u2019s last over as he top-edged a pull to mid-on, before the fast bowler wrapped up the innings by having No 11 batter Akif Javed caught behind.<\/p>\n

\"Spectators
Spectators cheered for Babar Azam\u2019s Peshawar in his hometown [Arif Ali\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Australian batter, who was visibly moved to tears after leading Hyderabad into the final in a dramatic last-over win over Islamabad United in the second qualifier on Friday, admitted that his team did not post an imposing target.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a batting group, we probably left a few runs out there,\u201d Labuschagne said. \u201cWe showed once again that belief in the side and what we can do, putting them four for 40, but just not enough runs on the board tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyderabad had a fairytale run in the tournament when they came back strongly after losing their first four league games, and also knocked out both former champions Multan Sultans and Islamabad United in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight hurts,\u201d Labuschagne said. \u201cBut reflecting on what an amazing tournament we\u2019ve put together, coming from four losses to winning four in a row, getting bowled out for 80 then winning by 100, and then winning two games to get into the final, we\u2019ve made so many great memories and I\u2019m just so proud of the team, it\u2019s been an awesome effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron Hardie\u2019s brilliant all-round performance ensured Peshawar Zalmi clinched their second Pakistan Super League cricket title with a five-wicket win over newcomers Hyderabad Kingsmen, despite an early wobble in the run chase in the final. Hardie grabbed 4-27 to bowl out Hyderabad for a below-par 129 all out in 18 overs and then hit a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}