Peshawar Zalmi registered a remarkable victory against Lahore Qalandars in the last group game in PSL 7. Both the teams finished at the same points in the points table but Lahore finished ahead of Zalmi due to a superior net run rate.
Zalmi got off to a sluggish start as they lost wickets early on. Shoaib Malik and Haider Ali steadied the ship before Khalid Usman scored a quick rate at the backend of the innings to take the score to 158/7.
Lahore were poor as well as they lost wickets at regular intervals throughout their innings. A late flurry from Shaheen Afridi kept them in the hunt and he managed to take the game into super over as he struck Mohammad Umar for 23 runs in the final over.
Wahab Riaz was exceptional in the super over as he gave away only 5 runs which Peshawar managed to chase down in 2 balls. Wahab was named as player of the match for his magnifcent super over and his two wickets spell in the match.
Pre Match
Lahore Qalandars will face-off against Peshawar Zalmi in the 29th match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 7. The two teams will battle it out against each other at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore at 7:30 pm PKT on Monday, 21 February.
Match Preview
Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi will go head to head in the last match of PSL 7 group stages. Both the teams have already qualified for the PSL play-offs with Lahore at the second spot in the PSL points table while Zalmi at the third spot. A win for Zalmi will take them level on points with Lahore but they will stay at the third spot due to their inferior net run rate.
Lahore will be without the services of star player Rashid Khan for the remainder of the tournament. They have drafted in Fawad Ahmed as his replacement and they will be hoping that he will be able to create a similar impact in the bowling department.
Peshawar, on the other hand, will be without a number of players for the rest of the tournament. Liam Livingstone, Sherfane Rutherford, and Tom Kohler-Cadmore have all traveled back to the country and Zalmi will be in a spot of bother as they head into the play-offs.
Both the teams are likely to make a few forced changes.
Match Details
• Date Monday, 21 February 2022
• Time 07:30 pm PKT
• Venue Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
• Live Stream LINK
Check out the details of the match here.
Possible Playing XIs
Lahore Qalandars possible XI – Shaheen Afridi (c), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Phil Salt (wk), Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hafeez, Harry Brook, David Wiese, Fawad Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan
Check out Lahore’s full squad here
Peshawar Zalmi possible XI – Wahab Riaz (c), Mohammad Haris (wk), Yasir Khan, Benny Howell, Haider Ali, Shoaib Malik, Hussain Talat, Ben Cutting, Usman Qadir, Salman Irshad, Pat Brown
Head to Head
Overall, the two teams have come face to face 14 times in the tournament. Zalmi have an upper hand with 8 wins while Qalandars have won 6. They last faced each other in PSL 7 on 2 February 2022 at National Stadium Karachi which Lahore won by 29 runs.
X-Factor
Haris Rauf has not been at his usual best throughout the tournament. Lahore will be hoping that the fiery pacer picks up his form quickly and play a crucial role as they enter the business end of the tournament.
Mohammad Haris has been a revelation for Zalmi at the top of the order. The Yellow Storm will be banking on him to provide a solid start once again and spur them on to their fifth final in PSL history.
Source: Pro Pakistani