Dan Christian was the most relieved man in Karachi's National Stadium after hitting the winning runs on what proved the strangest of days for the veteran Australian allrounder in the Pakistan Super League.
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The Karachi Kings veteran was left embarrassed after being smashed for 32 runs, the most ever conceded in a PSL over, at the end of the Peshawar Zalmi innings on Wednesday.
But the 37-year-old made amends at the end of Karachi's run chase, hitting a crucial unbeaten 16 off nine balls and partnering the brilliant Babar Azam to a six-wicket win.
The Sydney Sixer, who'd crashed a critical six over long on in the penultimate over, flicked the winning boundary to midwicket with three deliveries remaining, his shot being misfielded by the ropes.
Christian didn't look so happy earlier after being taken to the cleaners in Peshawar's final over when allrounder Amad Butt took a fancy to his bowling, smashing two sixes and three fours off the last over.
Christian's over also included two wides, one of which went for a boundary, and ended up costing 32.
It left Peshawar on a very handy 5-188, which had been largely achieved thanks to Englishman Ravi Bopara's unbeaten 58 off 40 balls and a smashing 46 off 32, including three sixes, from West Indian Sherfane Rutherford.
Karachi, though, always looked to have Peshawar's measure in the run chase, which was helped by some poor fielding.
The brilliant Babar timed his innings expertly as he got to an unbeaten 77 off 47 balls and shared in another key partnership of 118 with Mohammad Nabi, who cracked a big-hitting 67 off 35 balls, featuring four sixes.
It left Babar on 5,999 career runs after 164 T20 matches and he's set to become the second-fastest to the 6,000 landmark after Chris Gayle, who achieved it in 162 knocks.
In the later game, another Australian Ben Cutting was also on the winning side as Quetta Gladiators finally notched their first victory, beating Multan Sultans by 22 runs.
But the allrounder was also embarrassed to drop a sitter at long-off which should have sent Imran Tahir packing.
Instead, the missed chance cost his teammate Zahid Mahmood a hat-trick after the legspinner had dismissed Mohammad Rizwan (66) and Sohail Khan (8) in successive balls.
Quetta had earlier racked up 7-176 thanks largely to opening batsman Usman Khan's 81 off 50 balls.
Australian Associated Press
