Player of the Match Kieron Pollard and Sheldon Cottrell combined to lead Multan Sultans to a commanding 84-run win over the Lahore Qalanders and book a place in the finals of the Pakistan Super League for the third year running.

Pollard’s 57 from 34 balls during a 65-run partnership with Tim David after Multan Sultans lost Usman Khan for 29, Mohammad Rizwan for 33 and Rilee Rossouw for 13 to be 90-3 in the 13^th over. The powerfully built Trinidadian smashed one four and six sixes, three of them coming off the bowling of Shaheen Afridi in the 19^th over that yielded 20 runs.

He was eventually bowled by Haris Rauf in the final over in which Multan Sultans also lost the wicket of Khushdil the very next ball.

David remained unbeaten on 22 watched from the other end as Rauf finished with figures of 3-34 when the innings closed at 160-5.

Needing eight runs an over for victory, Lahore Qalanders found the going tough at 15-2 as Cottrell dismissed Mirza Baig for eight and Abdullah Shafique for a duck in the third over. Anwar Ali bowled Fakhar Azam for six and Lahore were quickly in deep trouble on 19-3.

Cottrell picked up his third wicket when he dismissed Afridi for a duck in the fifth over to make it 28-4. Pollard got rid of Sikandar Raza for one as Lahore crumbled towards defeat.

Sam Billings scored 19 and Rauf 15 but wickets continued to regularly as Lahore folded for 76 in 14.3 overs.

Cottrell finished with 3-20 while Pollard took 1-3 from the only over he bowled.

A whirlwind 121 from South African Rilee Rossouw and a rapid 52 from former West Indies white ball Captain Kieron Pollard helped the Multan Sultans chase down a mammoth target of 243 to defeat Peshawar Zalmi in their Pakistan Super League fixture at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Friday.

Zalmi posted 242-6 from their 20 overs after winning the toss and batting first.

Captain Babar Azam followed up a hundred in their last game with a top score of 73 while fellow opener, Saim Ayub made 58. Azam’s knock lasted 39 deliveries and included nine fours and two sixes while Ayub faced 33 balls and hit five fours and four sixes.

Englishman Tom Kohler-Cadmore also contributed an 18-ball 38. Medium pacer Abbas Afridi took 4-39 off his four overs for the Sultans.

Then, with a mountain to climb after losing openers Shan Masood (5) and Momammad Rizwan (7) early, Rossouw and Pollard put together what ended up being a match-winning 99-run third-wicket partnership.

Pollard made a 25-ball 52, hitting three fours and five sixes in the process but it was Rossouw who was the star of the show.

The South African’s 121 came off just 51 balls and included 12 fours and eight sixes as he was the last Sultans wicket to fall , going in the 19^th over with the score on 227. He brought up his hundred off 41 balls, making it the fastest hundred in PSL history, bettering his own record of 43 balls set against the Quetta Gladiators in 2020.

In the end, cameos from Anwar Ali (24*) and Usama Mir (11*) led Multan over the line. The Sultans are the third team to book a spot in the playoffs after the Lahore Qalandars and Islamabad United.

Scores: Peshawar Zalmi 242-4 off 20 overs (Babar Azam 73, Saim Ayub 58, Tom Kohler-Cadmore 38, Mohammad Haris 35, Abbas Afridi 4-39) Multan Sultans 244-6 off 19.1 overs (Rilee Rossouw 121, Kieron Pollard 52, Anwar Ali 24*, Azmatullah Omarzai 2-62).

Former West Indies ODI and T20I Captain Kieron Pollard made history on Saturday by becoming the third man to reach 12,000 T20 runs.

Pollard achieved the milestone in a Pakistan Super League game between the Multan Sultans and the Lahore Qalandars.

The 35-year-old entered the game needing just 16 runs to achieve the feat and made 39 off 28 balls including two fours and three sixes as his Sultans suffered a 21-run defeat at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Pollard, the all-time leader in T20s played with 620, brought up his milestone in 550 innings.

Overall, the Trinidadian now has 12,023 runs at an average of 31.15 including one hundred and 56 fifties.

Only two batsmen have scored more T20 runs than Pollard: Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik who has 12,515 runs in 509 matches including 77 fifties and, of course, Chris Gayle who has 14,562 runs in 463 matches including a record 22 hundreds and 88 fifties.

Former West Indies head coach, Ottis Gibson, has decided not to renew his contract as Bangladesh’s fast-bowling coach.

The 52-year-old completed his two-year contract with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) this month and is set to join Pakistan Super League side Multan Sultans for the start of their campaign on January 27.

BCB’s cricket operations committee chairman, Jalal Yunus, spoke about the situation in an interview with ESPNcricinfo.

“Ottis Gibson didn’t want to renew his contract which we accepted. Local coaches will look after the fast-bowling department temporarily. We hope to replace Gibson with another foreign coach shortly,” Yunus said.

Gibson, who played two tests and 15 ODIs for the West Indies between 1995 and 1999, joined Bangladesh in January 2020, replacing former South African fast-bowler Charl Langeveldt.

Gibson was the head coach of the West Indies Men’s senior team from 2010 to 2014.

Gibson’s best time with the Bangladesh team came earlier this month, in New Zealand, where Bangladesh’s pacers took 13 wickets on the way to a historic victory in the first Test against New Zealand at Mount Manganui.