Catching up on PSL 2018

Tahreem Niazi
Staff Reporter
The Pawprint

2018 marked the third season of the Pakistan Super League, a franchise of Twenty20 cricket league which was established by the Pakistan Cricket Board in 2015. It featured six teams (Karachi Kings, Lahore Qalandars, Quetta Gladiators, Islamabad United, Multan Sultans and Peshawar Zalmi). The matches took place in Dubai and Sharjah, with two playoff matches that will be played in Lahore and the final at the National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan.

This year’s PSL was unpredictable. Teams played against each other as the points were moving up and down the leaderboard. Islamabad United rose up from the dead bringing the strongest opponents, Karachi Kings and Multan Sultans, scoring a place at the top of the leaderboard and surprising the audience. Karachi Kings and Quetta Gladiators stood on an even level throughout. Multan Sultans went from being at the top of the leaderboard to reaching second last position at the leaderboard. Peshawar Zalmi being the winner of PSL last year, lowered the expectations of their fans by performing average. Lahore Qalandars were slow at the beginning but ended up leaving the championship in style with great playing in the last matches. The decision was finally made with 4 teams qualifying for the eliminators with 2 teams that were not expected at all.

Islamabad United is at the top of the leaderboard with 7 wins and 14 points, Karachi Kings is second with 5 wins and 11 points, Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators with 5 wins and 10 points.

Islamabad United faced Karachi Kings for qualifiers on March 18th and tore their way through them. Islamabad United is now directly in the finals while Karachi Kings will play the winner of Quetta Gladiators vs Peshawar Zalmi (eliminator match). The winner of eliminator match will have to face Islamabad United in the finals which will declare the winner of PSL.

March 20th, Quetta Gladiators vs Peshawar Zalmi (qualifying #2), Lahore

March 21st, Karachi Kings will play the winner of qualifying match #2 between Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi, Lahore

March 25th, the final will be held between Islamabad United and the winner of the March 21st match in Karachi cricket stadium

PSL Points Table

TEAMS	MAT	WON	LOST	N/R	POINTS	NET RR
Islamabad United	10	7	3	0	14	0.296
Karachi Kings	10	5	4	1	11	0.028
Peshawar Zalmi	10	5	5	0	10	0.464
Quetta Gladiators	10	5	5	0	10	0.312
Multan Sultans	10	4	5	1	9	-0.191
Lahore Qalandars	10	3	7	0	6	-0.931