News Desk |
Two matches of the fourth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) will be played on Friday (today), 15th February 2019 at the Dubai International Stadium. The first match will be held between Multan Sultans and Karachi Kings at 04:30 PM (PST). Multan Sultans captain Shoaib Malik is reportedly confident to start the tournament on a winning note.
Star all-rounder Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Irfan, James Vince, and Andre Russell are the key players of Multan Sultans. Karachi Kings also look confident as they have number one T20I batsman Babar Azam in their lineup. Captain Imad Wasim, Mohammed Amir, Usman Shinwari, Ravi Bopara and Colin Munro are other important players.
A glorious return to form from Fakhar Zaman got Lahore off to the perfect start, and for much of the innings looked destined to set a target around 200.
Multan Sultan is owned by Ali Tareen son of Jahangir Tareen; while Karachi Kings is owned by ARY’s Salman Iqbal. Karachi Kings has managed to entice famous beverage brand Rooh Afza to be its gold sponsor for PSL4. In addition to being a sponsor, Rooh Afza is featured heavily in the official Karachi Kings song. It will also be present in the dugouts during matches.
The second match between Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators will start at 09:00 PM (PST) at the same venue. Zalmi skipper Darren Sammy said, “We’ve been preparing both physically and technically. Mentally, the team is in a good space. Most of our guys have been playing cricket whether in Pakistan, whether in Bangladesh Premier League so it’s a good thing. I always tell the guys if we do what we do well, not many teams will beat us. We have what it takes to go out and win that competition.”
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Islamabad United opened the series with a win against traditionally unsuccessful Lahore Qalandars. After Islamabad United won the toss and opted to field first, Fakhar Zaman and Sohail Akhtar opened the innings for Lahore Qalandars. Meanwhile, Mohammad Sami and Samit Patel shared the new ball for the defending champions, with the former’s opening ball of the opening over of the opening match dispatched for a four by Zaman.
After sizing up his prey in the first few overs, Zaman went after Patel in the fourth over, first smacking the first six of PSL 2019 before following it up with a boundary the very next ball. A glorious return to form from Fakhar Zaman got Lahore off to the perfect start, and for much of the innings looked destined to set a target around 200.
But a middle-order collapse meant Mohammad Hafeez’s side slump from 129 for 1 to 171 for 8, adding just 40 runs in the final six overs. Even so, Rahat Ali looked to have put Lahore on course with three wickets in an over to rip out Islamabad’s top order, Luke Ronchi and all. But, while Lahore’s middle order had fallen apart, Islamabad’s held firm.
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Hussain Talat, Faheem Ashraf, and Asif Ali kept ahead of the run rate during the second half of the innings, and Asif made his move in the 18th over. With two sixes off the first two balls, the run rate had been brought down to six. From there on, the five-wicket win was an inevitability.