PSL 2018, Match 30: Karachi Kings vs Islamabad United – Match Predictions

Karachi Kings’ campaign has gone pear-shaped in the second half of the tournament

Published - 16 Mar 2018, 12:28 IST | Updated - 16 Mar 2018, 12:28 IST

4 Min Read

The Karachi Kings have completely messed up their campaign in the second half of PSL 3 and might just be one loss away from getting eliminated from the tournament. They wouldn’t have foreseen this at all when they were sitting at the top of the table after winning 3 out of their first 3 games, but things can go pear-shaped quickly in T20 cricket with negative momentum.

Karachi Kings have a net run rate of -0.118 which is not great, but it’s still better than Multan’s which is -0.191. So they will have to make sure that they don’t suffer a heavy defeat against Islamabad United tonight and get as close to the winning line as possible, in case they don’t quite cross it.

For Islamabad, the equation is very, very comfortable. Whatever be the result of this game, they will finish in top 2 and will play in Qualifier 1. They won’t be in the knockout scenario of the eliminator which the no. 3 and no. 4 teams will have to go through.

Probable nature of the pitch

This will be the second game of the evening, so the pitch will have been exploited for 40 overs, but what we have seen in the doubleheaders of late, the pitch doesn’t deteriorate with 40 overs of play at all and it actually gets a fraction better late in the evening as dew falls on the outfield and on the pitch as well, quickening up the playing surface and getting the ball wet causing it to skid on to the bat.

With the dew being quite heavy in the night game and bowling being tougher in the second innings, the captain winning the toss may decide to bowl first, going against the general norm of batting first which has worked well for the teams in this tournament.

Playing Combination

Karachi Kings

The Karachi Kings finally made the move to promote Babar Azam to the opening slot last evening against Peshawar which made room for Colin Ingram at no. 3, a position he has excelled at in various T20 competitions in the past. While Babar played a brilliant knock up top and did his job by holding one end up, the middle order comprising three big overseas players completely collapsed with the likes of Ingram, Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara scoring just 12 runs among them together.

If it wasn’t for Babar and Shahid Afridi’s cameo down the order, the situation would have turned pretty embarrassing for Karachi as they would have been beaten by a hefty margin and the effects would have shown on their NRR. A 44-run loss run is however still a heavy loss, but it could so easily have been worse.

It will be difficult for the new captain Eoin Morgan to gather his team and his own thoughts after such a humiliating evening, but he will have to find a way to get his boys firing on all cylinders as it’s almost a do or die situation tonight.

Any change is unlikely in Karachi’s overseas quartet. They all are highly experienced and the management will put their trust into them to do the job at the crunch stage.

Predicted XI: Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, Usman Khan, Shahid Afridi, Colin Ingram, Joe Denly, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Usama Mir (c), Mohammad Irfan Jnr, Mohammad Amir

Islamabad United

As this game is a dead rubber for Islamabad United, they might want to rest some of their first choice players and try out some of the other players waiting in the wings. Luke Ronchi has played all the way through and so has JP Duminy since he has joined the squad after the India T20 series and the captain Misbah-ul-Haq might give these two guys a bit of a breather and some time to refresh themselves as they are sure shot starters for Qualifier 1.

If Duminy and Ronchi are out, the like-for-like replacements will be Sam Billings and Chadwick Walton who will both open the innings and Billings might stand behind the sticks, although Walton is a keeper too.

The Islamabad management might contemplate keeping Mohammad Sami out of this game too to ease the workload of the pacer who also has been a regular feature in their XI, but it’s hard for them to do that as they don’t have a decent backup domestic seamer in the squad to slot in for Sami.

Predicted XI: Mohammad Sami, Misbah-ul-Haq(C), Sam Billings, Chadwick Walton, Samit Patel, Alex Hales, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Amad Butt, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf