PSL 2018, Match 26: Quetta Gladiators vs Lahore Qalandars – Match Predictions

The Qalandars have found their form in recent times.

Published - 14 Mar 2018, 11:17 IST | Updated - 14 Mar 2018, 11:17 IST

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With Multan Sultans’ loss last night, Quetta Gladiators qualified for the playoffs and they won’t be under too much pressure now going head to head against Lahore Qalandars tonight in the PSL. As far as Lahore is concerned, they are out of the tournament having lost 6 of their games. So this game is a bit of a dead rubber.

Quetta. however, won’t quite look at it as a dead rubber. They might have made it to the top 4 already, but it will help them big time if they win their remaining two games and somehow make it to top 2 as it will allow them two cracks at the playoffs rather than just one which the no. 3 and no. 4 teams get.

Probable nature of the pitch

Yesterday’s pitch at the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium was an absolute road, the kind of surface Sharjah has always been known for producing. It was the bowlers’ graveyard and the batsmen, particularly from the Islamabad United side, made merry with plenty of big shots as they posted a total in excess of 180 for the second time in a row.

It should be a crackerjack of a pitch again and a total round about 180 will be par. While a lot of results this PSL have gone in the favor of the teams batting first, a bowl-first decision by the captain after winning the toss won’t be entirely surprising because of the flatness of the pitch.

Playing Combination

Quetta Gladiators

Quetta has found a tremendous balance in their line up and it’s hard to spot a weakness in there at the moment. There was a school of thought that the top order had done the bulk of the work for them and their middle order hadn’t been tested properly, but the way Rilee Rossouw and the captain Sarfaraz Ahmed played in the previous game against Zalmi, the team management wouldn’t be concerned about the form of the middle order anymore.

Quetta doesn’t have a wrist spinner which most of the teams ideally like to have as the wrist spinners have emerged as the biggest game-breakers in the T20 format, but Mohammad Nawaz and Hasan Khan, the two finger spinners that Quetta has are immensely accurate and hardly give any breathing space to the opposition. The pressure that they create often results in the wickets in the middle overs helping Sarfaraz Ahmed to take control of the game.

However as the spinners have fetched key breakthroughs, the contribution of somebody like Rahat Ali can’t be undermined either who hasn’t let the captain down whenever he has been called upon.

Predicted XI: Asad Shafiq, Shane Watson, Sarfaraz Ahmed (C), Rameez Raja, Rilee Rossouw, Mohammad Nawaz, Kevin Pietersen, Hasan Khan, Anwar Ali, Ben Laughlin, Rahat Ali

Lahore Qalandars

There has definitely been an improvement in the body language of the Lahore Lahore after losing the 6th game. With no pressure of the knockouts qualification anymore, they have managed to express themselves freely and have secured two back to back victories to earn some sort of respectability for themselves in the points table. They will want to go out there and play ruthlessly again as they have absolutely nothing to lose.

Two of the Kiwi players who have come into the Lahore’s XI recently have made a big difference for sure. While Anton Devicich has played a couple of brisk cameos at the top of the order, Mitchell McClenaghan bowl pretty miserly in the last game and his spell along with that of Sunil Narine was the main reason why Lahore was able to restrict Karachi to a chase-able total. These two bowlers will hold the key again, while a lot of eyes will be on Shaheen Shah Afridi as well with the new ball.

Predicted XI: Brendon McCullum (c), Gulraiz Sadaf (WK), Sunil Narine, Agha Salman, Yasir Shah, Anton Devicich, Mitchell McClenaghan, Sohail Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Akhtar