Peshawar Zalmi‘s spotless run in PSL 2026 continued as sensational half-centuries from Kusal Mendis (80 not out off 43 balls) and Farhan Yousaf (58* from 36) made a light work of Karachi Kings‘ 182 on a hot Wednesday afternoon in Lahore. It was Zalmi’s seventh consecutive win, achieved with seven wickets and seven balls to spare.

While this was Kusal’s fifth 50-plus score in his last six innings, Farhan, the Pakistan Under-19 captain, scored his maiden PSL fifty in what is his debut season. Fast bowler Ali Raza, Farhan’s Under-19 and Zalmi team-mate, became the youngest Pakistan bowler to take a T20 hat-trick at 18 years and 35 days.

Kusal and Yousaf stitched an unbeaten partnership of 119 runs after coming together at 67 for 3 in the eighth over, with the required run rate nearing ten an over. They held together the chase by milking the bowlers around the dial for ones and twos, while also picking up occasional boundaries throughout the middle overs.

The onslaught began in the 16th over, by when the required rate had soared to 11 an over, and resulted in the chase getting wrapped up well in time. Kusal smoked Abbas Afridi for consecutive sixes, and Yousaf smashed Hasan Ali for a six and a four as the 16th and 17th overs combined brought 28 runs for Zalmi.

Both Kusal and Yousaf then hit Abbas for a boundary each in the 18th over, and Farhan sealed the chase in the penultimate over, bowled by Hasan, with a gigantic six sandwiched between two fours.

Kings, despite opting to bat first, failed to make the most of the perfect batting conditions on a belter. There was no support for Jason Roy (85 off 51 balls) as the three batters who followed combined to score only 36 runs from 38 deliveries.

But the momentum shifted when Azam Khan (35 off 19 balls) walked out to bat. Roy and Azam’s partnership of 63 from 32 deliveries promised a total in excess of 200, but Kings’ innings came crashing down with Azam’s wicket towards the end of the 18th over. Roy fell to Mohammad Basit in the next over, in which Kings added only seven runs to their total.

The first three legal balls of the last over produced 12 runs for Kings. But they ended up losing four wickets in the next three balls as Raza completed his maiden T20 hat-trick. The right-arm quick ran Abbas out at the non-striker’s end as he looked to steal a single off a wide before recording the hat-trick. Khushdil Shah dislodged the bails by pushing his heels on the stumps, while Shahid Aziz and Hasan were clean bowled.