Teams Status
Islamabad United
Since being beaten on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi leg, Islamabad United have been in incredible form as they have notched up three straight wins that have propelled them to the top of the PSL table and also sealed their playoffs berth.
What’s even more impressive is that they have done this all with several of their players missing game(s). Faheem Ashraf continues to nurse a hand injury, whereas Hasan Ali also missed a game due to personal reasons.
During this run, they’ve had several heroes. Mohammad Musa Khan has had wickets, late-order duo of Iftikhar Ahmed and Asif Ali has found runs but most of all has been the contributions of Colin Munro, who has delivered two knocks of 90 and 88 over three games.
Islamabad are back being the juggernaut we’ve known them to be and look to have snatched the title of tournament favourites from Lahore Qalandars.
Peshawar Zalmi
Peshawar Zalmi, in their four outings since the restart of PSL 2021, have won two and lost two, with each defeat followed by a win and vice versa. By that logic, they should lose their next match as they won their last but let’s not get lost in superstitions and trends.
The Javed Afridi-owned side looked great in their last game, which was a win over defending champions Karachi Kings. While the player of the match was Hazratahllah Zazai for his whirlwind 63 in an easy run chase of 109, the real architects of the victory were Zalmi bowlers, who had managed to restrict a star-studded Karachi side to just 108-9.
Captain Wahab Riaz, in particular, was outstanding as he got not only the prized wicket of Babar Azam on the very first ball but also restricted the dangerous Sharjeel Khan to just 25 runs. Later, he got the wicket of Karachi captain Imad Wasim as well and should have been the player of the match instead of Zazai.
A victory tonight will see Peshawar become only the second side after Islamabad to qualify for the playoffs.
Comments 0 Comments