In the second eliminator of the eighth season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), defending champions Lahore Qalandars are scheduled to face Peshawar Zalmi at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore (today).
Shaheen Afridi-led Qalandars lost to Mohammad Rizwan-led Multan Sultans in the qualifiers of the tournament on Wednesday. However, today’s clash will give the Qalandars their last chance to qualify for the finals.
After his team’s defeat on Wednesday, Shaheen said: “We wanted to win the toss and bowl but we didn’t expect such a score. We lost early wickets and we will see what went wrong and prepare for the next match because we still have a chance.
“When the key batsmen get out early, the pressure is on the later batsmen. A good catch or a run-out can win you the game and we will work on it. It is the system of nature, the wind starts blowing. Done and Cottrell swung the ball,” he added.
Meanwhile, Zalmi knocked Islamabad United out of the tournament on Thursday after a brilliant performance by the Babar Azam-led unit.
Today Zalmi will be hoping that his bowling, which has been below par throughout the tournament, can pick up where he left off in the first eliminator against United.
“The way the fast bowlers performed and came back, it was fantastic. After 10 overs, the ball started to overturn. We did not perform well with the bat, we were 20 runs short. There is always room for improvement. We need to bowl well in the first six overs,” Babar said after the match.
It should be noted that the final of PSL 8 has been rescheduled and it will be held tomorrow on March 18 instead of March 19.
So far, Qalandars have faced Zalmi twice in the tournament. Each side has won one match each.
Squads
Lahore Qalandars: Shaheen Shah Afridi, Fakhar Zaman, Rashid Khan, David Wiese, Hussain Talat, Haris Rauf, Abdullah Shafiq, Sikandar Raza, Ahmed Daniyal, Dilbar Hussain, Kamran Ghulam, Mirza Tahir Baig, Chavez Irfan, Zaman Khan, Jalat Khan, Jordan Cox (wk), Ahsan Bhatti, Sam Billings (wk) and Shane Dadeswell.
Peshawar Zalmi: Babar Azam (captain), Wahab Riaz, Arshad Iqbal, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Haris (wicket), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Mujeebur Rehman, Aamir Jamal, Saeem Ayub, Salman Irshad, Haseebullah Khan, Khurram Shahzad, Richard Gleeson, Sufian Moqim, Tom Koehler Cadmore, Usman Qadir, Jimmy Neesham and Haris Sohail.
