Good Evening! Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket coverage of the eighth match of the second edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2017. This game will see Lahore Qalandars take on the might of the Karachi Kings at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Both these teams have been poor in this tournament so far, finding themselves at the fourth and fifth place in the PSL 2017 Points Table respectively. Qalandar’s net run-rate is -0.262 while Kings are a few decimals behind with -0.482. This will be the first match between both sides in the second edition.
Their head-to-head win loss ratio stands at 1:1. Kings reached the Qualifier 1 stage in the inaugural season of PSL while, Qalandars did not qualify past the group stage. Qalandars are currently placed fourth in the PSL points table with one win from 3 matches, while Kings are bottom of the table with 2 defeats from as many games. Qalandars’ only win came against defending champion Islamabad United. Qalandars’ chased down 160 runs to win the match by 6 wickets thanks to a belligerent innings by Jason Roy. Kings, on the other hand, have just not managed to get the ball rolling so far.
Kings in their last match were thumped by Quetta Gladiators by 7 wickets. Having a good enough score to defend, Kings’ bowling was a big let down with Mohammad Aamer and Imad Wasim leaking runs. It is important for both sides to notch up wins before the higher placed sides surge ahead in the competition.
Lahore Qalandars: Aamer Yamin, Azhar Ali, Bilawal Bhatti, James Franklin, Ghulam Mudassar, Chris Green, Brendon McCullum (c), Mohammad Irfan jnr, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Usman Qadir, Yasir Shah, Cameron Delport, GD Elliott, Fakhar Zaman, Sunil Narine, Jason Roy, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Akmal.
Karachi Kings: Kumar Sangakkara (c&wk), Babar Azam, Abrar Ahmed, Ravi Bopara, Chris Gayle, Hasan Mohsin, Imad Wasim, Mahela Jayawardene, Kashif Bhatti, Khurram Manzoor, Ryan McLaren, Mohammad Amir, Kieron Pollard, Rahat Ali, Saifullah Bangash, Shahzaib Hasan, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Khan, Usama Mir.