The caravan of the 7th season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) rolls on, with Lahore Qalandars set to square off against Islamabad United at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday evening (February 19).
The race for the playoffs is heating up and with just two group games left for both sides, neither can afford a slip up.
Host Qalandars are at the second spot in the points table after having stitched 5 wins in eight fixtures. However, after losing the last game to bottom-placed Karachi Kings, they can't afford another blip.
Fakhar Zaman has been the spearhead for Lahore in their campaign thus far. The southpaw has churned out 50+ scores at a rapid rate at will. Lahore experienced the grim reality in an event of his rare failure in the last game as they failed to chase down a poultry 150, set by Karachi.
Zaman was dismissed by Hamza for a 5-ball 1, and even though the likes of Mohammad Hafeez, David Wiese and Harry Brooks played decent cameos, it was a blow from which Lahore could never really recover.
They will hope that it isn't the case in the upcoming fixture against Islamabad United, who are currently at the fourth spot with 4 wins and as many defeats after 8 games.
Islamabad's batting has been badly hamstrung due to injury to skipper Shadab Khan and the unavailability of the overseas duo of Paul Stirling and Alex Hales for different reasons.
They did, however, put up a brave fight in the last game with Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Azam Khan rising to the occasion during the run-chase of 207.
While Gurbaz set the tone with a whirlwind 19-ball 46, the young stumped hammered an excellent 45-ball 85, an innings studded with 6 fours and 7 sixes.
However, barring these two, none of the other batsmen rose to the occasion, something skipper Asif Ali would like to take the lead in, as far as not repeating the same is concerned.
On the bowling front, Faheem Ashraf (3/33 in 4 overs) and Waqas Maqsood (2/34 in 4 overs).
This will be the second encounter of the season between these two teams and Qalandars would be chuffed at the fact that they won't face Shadab this time around.
Even though Lahore won the game by 8 runs, they were truly challenged by Shadab, who claimed 4/11 besides smashing a half-century.
Match Details - Lahore Qalandars vs Islamabad United, PSL 2022
Date: 19th February 2022
Time: 08:00 PM IST
Venue: Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
Broadcast: Sony Six, Sony Six HD, SonyLiV app and website
Pitch Report:
The average 1st innings score in the last 9 completed night games at the Gaddafi Stadium is 178, with chasing teams winning just three of them.
Squads:
Lahore Qalandars:
Shaheen Shah Afridi, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Abdullah Shafique, Rashid Khan, David Wiese, Haris Rauf, Sohail Akhtar, Zeeshan Ashraf, Ahmed Daniyal, Phil Salt, Harry Brook, Kamran Ghulam, Dean Foxcroft, Zaman Khan, Maaz Khan, Samit Patel, Syed Faridoun
Islamabad United:
Shadab Khan (c), Asif Ali, Azam Khan (wk), Athar Mahmood, Marchant de Lange, Danish Aziz, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Wasim, Mubasir Khan, Muhammad Akhlaq (wk), Muhammad Musa, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Paul Stirling, Zafar Gohar, Zahir Khan, Zeeshan Zameer
Probable Playing XI:
Lahore Qalandars:
Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hafeez, Phil Salt (WK), Harry Brook, David Wiese, Rashid Khan, Shaheen Afridi ©, Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan
Islamabad United:
Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Mubasir Khan, Danish Aziz, Liam Dawson, Azam Khan (WK), Asif Ali ©, Faheem Ashraf, Waqas Maqsood, Muhammad Musa, Marchant de Lange, Zahir Khan.
CE Fantasy XI:
Fakhar Zaman ©, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Kamran Ghulam, Azam Khan (WK), Mohammad Hafeez, Asif Ali, David Wiese, Faheem Ashraf, Rashid Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Waqas Maqsood
Captain: Fakhar Zaman
Vice-captain: Rahmanullah Gurbaz