SHARJAH: Karachi Kings defeated Peshwar Zalmi by nine runs despite the heroics of Shahid Afridi who scored a quickfire 54 in the 13th fixture of the Pakistan Super League.

A rampaging Afridi all set to hand his side the win till he was caught on a ball by Usama Mir, the young legspinner who was fearless while bowling the last over of the match.

Skipper Sammy supported his side with a steady 34 and stabilised the innings further after the loss of early wickets that his side suffered.

Zalmi faltered which chasing the target of 175 and looked to be in trouble after losing five wickets, and were desperately trying to steady their innings.

The openers made a contribution of 30 runs, with the next three batsmen only scoring in single digits.

Previous hard hitter Morgan failed to contribute in the match and returned to the pavilion after just making three runs. Kings Sohail Khan picked

Kings at the end of innings set a target of 175 for Peshawar Zalmi, with Azam contributing 46 before he was caught by Hasan Ali on a ball by Shakib al Hasan and Shoaib Malik making an unbeaten 51 off 27 ball.

Kings were off to a steady start with their openers hitting periodic boundaries and had scored 45 in the first five overs of their match against Zalmi.

Babar Azam seemed to be in form, quickly crossing the 30-run mark and was supported by his skipper Sangakkara on the crease.

Peshawar Zalmi won the toss and elected to field in their match against the Karachi Kings.