Spidercam Halts PSL 2026

PSL halted by spider camera [Source: Screengrab from PSL broadcast]

The Karachi Kings returned to the National Stadium, Karachi, on Thursday night as they took on the Peshawar Zalmi in Match 17 of the PSL 2026.

Batting first upon losing the toss, the Babar Azam-led Peshawar Zalmi set the stage on fire with a 191-run second-wicket stand between captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis. Babar scored an unbeaten 87 off 51, with 10 fours and two sixes, while the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper batter Mendis got to 109 off 52 with 14 fours and four sixes.

However, as they looked to defend the target against David Warner’s Karachi Kings, in a strange occurrence, the spider cam stopped the play, and the match lost over 20 minutes of play before a resumption.

Mohsin Naqvi’s PSL faces a strange interruption; Spider Cam halts the match

At 9:54 PM (local time), as Babar Azam’s Zalmi were cruising towards a victory, with Karachi Kings’ score reading 74/6, in a rare occurrence, the match was stopped for a long time.

Due to a technical issue with the broadcaster’s spider camera, it got stuck near the pitch, causing an interruption. It took a 24-minute delay to get the problem fixed and the match restarted at 10:18 PM (local time), with the leg-spinner Sufiyan Muqeem continuing his spell.

In the meantime, a long strategic timeout was taken by the match officials, Chris Gaffaney, Rashid Riaz, Asif Yaqoob and Iftikhar Ahmed to avoid any embarrassment to Mohsin Naqvi’s PCB.

Peshawar Zalmi decimates Karachi Kings

Led by captain Babar Azam’s unbeaten 87 off 57 and Kusal Mendis’ 109 (52), Abdul Samad added brilliant finishing touches to the Peshawar Zalmi innings to take the team to a massive 246/3 in 20 overs. Abbas Afridi, who was the best Karachi bowler, also went for 2/55 as everyone conceded plenty on the night.

While defending the score, Iftikhar Ahmed repeated his bowling exploits from the previous night and picked an outstanding 3/9 (2.1) starting in the powerplay. Both David Warner and Muhammad Waseem had to walk back on a duck, and the remaining batting lineup kept crumbling like a deck of cards.

Nahid Rana picked a fantastic 3/7 (4), alongside Sufiyan Muqeem’s 3/18 (4) in the middle overs. Furthermore, as the Kings were bowled out for just 87 runs, Shoriful Islam also got 1/23 (3) to his name. For the Kings, Azam Khan top-scored with his slow 25 off 27, alongside Saad Baig’s 14 off 11, which was the only double-digit score for the team.

Recurring humiliation for PSL 2026

Just 17 matches in to what was supposed to be a historic season of PSL, with two new teams added, the league has been under constant scrutiny. Starting with Naseem Shah’s controversial tweets in the first week, there have been several incidents which have tainted the league’s reputation.

A security breach from Lahore Qalandars, followed by the subsequent ball tampering incident, also occurred during the second week of the tournament. Finally, before rejoining the Karachi Kings’ squad, David Warner, who was back home momentarily, also got into legal trouble, which could have kept him away from the matches.

Furthermore, there have been several PSL 2026 contracted players who withdrew from the tournament and joined the IPL 2026 season, embarrassing Mohsin Naqvi and PCB...

Also Read: Fastest Centuries In PSL History After Kusal Mendis’ 48-Ball Century