In the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Friday, the defending champion Lahore Qalandars will take on Peshawar Zalmi in the second Eliminator of the present Pakistan Super League (PSL) season eight (today).
The Multan Sultans defeated the Shaheen Afridi-led Qalandars in the tournament’s qualifier on Wednesday. Yet today’s match will be the Qalandars’ last opportunity to get to the championship game.
Shaheen commented after his team was defeated on Wednesday: “We wanted to win the toss and bowl, but we did not anticipate such a margin. We swiftly lost wickets, so we’ll investigate what went wrong and get ready for the next game while we still have a chance.
“The latter batters are under strain when the key batters are struck out early. We will practice making effective catches and running outs, which can help you win games. The wind began to blow, and Cottrell caused the ball to swing, thus it is qudrat ka nizaam (state of nature),” he continued.
On Thursday, Zalmi eliminated Islamabad United from the competition following a valiant effort by the Babar Azam-led team.
Zalmi will be hoping that today their bowling, which has been subpar throughout the competition, can take up where it left off against United in the first Elimination.
“It was fantastic how the quick bowlers bowled and recovered. After 10 overs, the ball began to reverse. We fell short with the bat by 20 runs and were unable to finish strong. There’s constantly room for development. In the opening six overs, we need to bowl well,” Babar stated following the game.
It should be mentioned that the PSL 8 championship match has been moved from March 19 to March 18, tomorrow.
The Qalandars have already met Zalmi twice in the competition. Each team has one victory.
Squads
Lahore Qalandars: Shaheen Shah Afridi (c), Fakhar Zaman, Rashid Khan, David Wiese, Hussain Talat, Haris Rauf, Abdullah Shafique, Sikandar Raza, Ahmad Daniyal, Dilbar Hussain, Kamran Ghulam, Mirza Tahir Baig, Shawaiz Irfan, Zaman Khan, Jalat Khan, Jordan Cox (wk), Ahsan Bhatti, Sam Billings (wk) and Shane Dadswell.
Peshawar Zalmi: Babar Azam (c), Wahab Riaz, Arshad Iqbal, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Haris (wk), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Aamer Jamal, Saim Ayub, Salman Irshad, Haseebullah Khan, Khurram Shahzad, Richard Gleeson, Sufyan Muqeem, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Usman Qadir, Jimmy Neesham and Haris Sohail.
