The PSL will resume in Karachi on Saturday after a nine-month break between its league phase and the playoffs.
Table-topping Multan Sultans will be looking to complete the job they started, although the landscape has changed significantly since March.
Fixtures
Saturday, November 14, 2pm (UAE time) – Qualifier 1: Multan Sultans v Karachi Kings
6.30pm – Eliminator: Lahore Qalandars v Peshawar Zalmi
Sunday, November 15, 7pm – Qualifier 2: Loser of qualifier 1 v winner of the eliminator
Tuesday, November 17, 7pm – Final
Note: All matches at the National Stadium, Karachi
Broadcast
The matches will be available to watch live on YouTube
What happened?
The PSL was the last major cricket competition to be halted before all sport was shutdown by the coronavirus outbreak in March.
Even then, the organisers did their best to rush the competition to a conclusion. First, they carried on with league phase matches behind closed doors.
Then they altered the schedule for the playoffs, from the original eliminator format, to two semi-finals and a final, in a bid to rush the event through to a conclusion.
However, the event was halted once Alex Hales, who had already returned home to the UK because of the increasing travel restrictions at the time, reported to his Karachi franchise that he had Covid-like symptoms.
There was much deliberation in the time since as to whether the event would be able to be played to a conclusion.
But a window has been decided, and the original format reinstated.
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PSL 2020 team of the tournament so far
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1 Babar Azam (Karachi Kings) T20 cricket’s pre-eminent batsman is not a bludgeoner, but an aesthete. His shot making is so crisp, it takes the breath away. The season’s leading run-scorer. AP -
2 Chris Lynn (Lahore Qalandars) Spoke in Abu Dhabi in November about looking forward to touring Pakistan for the first time. Judged on the way he played, he looked like he loved it. AFP -
3 Shan Masood (Multan Sultans) Once a stodgy Test opener, now the go-getting captain of the PSL’s outstanding side. It has been quite the transformation for the Kuwait-born batsman. AFP -
4 Ben Dunk (Lahore Qalandars) Forever blowing bubbles, and plundering opposition bowling attacks. His 99 not out in Lahore’s win over Karachi Kings was arguably the highlight of the tournament. EPA -
5 Haider Ali (Peshawar Zalmi) Four innings of over 30 and a top score of 69 represented a breakthrough tournament for Peshawar’s new young star. Only 19, but being spoken about as a new national team recruit. AP -
6 Ben Cutting (Quetta Gladiators) In his role the late middle-order, Cutting faced just 77 balls in the tournament. He sent 13 of them for six. He also took eight wickets for the outgoing champions. AFP -
7 Shadab Khan (Islamabad United) Mature beyond his years. The 21-year-old was reliable with the ball, and a revelation with the bat. His haul of 263 was the fifth most in the league phase. AP -
8 Sohail Tanvir (Multan Sultans) Still going strong, 12 years after dominating the first season of the Indian Premier League. His economy rate of 6.8 was the best of any seamer to bowl a significant amount of overs. AFP -
9 Mohammed Amir (Karachi Kings) Almost as reliable with the ball as his teammate Babar Azam is with the bat. Only three bowlers managed more than his haul of 10 wickets, and he had a respectable economy, too. AFP -
10 Imran Tahir (Multan Sultans) No spinner managed as many wickets as the 10 the evergreen Tahir took for Multan. He will be 41 by the time the league can think about concluding, but he is still fit and firing. EPA -
11 Shaheen Afridi (Lahore Qalandars) The pick of the crop of young Pakistan fast-bowlers, in a competition renowned for the quality of that discipline. Second most wickets, and one of the most thrifty, as well. EPA
Where do the teams stand?
Multan Sultans were the outstanding side in the tournament before the break.
They finished top of the league, and for a while it looked as though they might be handed the title on that basis when it looked like it might be impossible to reschedule the remaining games.
All parties were intent to play the knockout fixtures, though, and a window was agreed.
As the top side, Multan will face second placed Karachi Kings, with the winner advancing direct to the final.
The loser will have a second chance, against the winner of the eliminator match between third-placed Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi – who are the only one of the remaining sides to have won the title before.
What has changed?
In the last match that was played in this competition, on March 15, Shane Watson was man of the match. Since then, he has played a whole IPL, and retired from the sport.
He is not the only one who will not be coming back. The sides have each announced altered squads for the playoffs.
Hales is returning for Karachi, but his English colleague James Vince will not make the trip, after testing positive for Covid this week.
After winning the IPL with Mumbai Indians in Dubai on Tuesday, Kieron Pollard will miss the trip to Pakistan.
He had been due to play for Peshawar Zalmi, but will head to New Zealand for West Indies’ limited overs tour instead.
