Lahore host Quetta in most important match of their history

PSL 2020: Lahore face Quetta in most important match of their history

By Zohaib Ahmed Majeed
March 03, 2020

Lahore Qalandars face the most important match of their history tonight when they take on Quetta Gladiators in front of their home fans at Gaddafi Stadium.

The Qalandars, as is common knowledge, are rooted to the bottom of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2020 points table with no points to their name after three tries. Much had been said about it. No point flogging a dead horse.

While the Qalandars are in a position they are very familiar with, the Gladiators, too, are not anywhere they are not supposed to be: second in the standings.

If Lahore wins tonight, they will still remain last but at least their hope of not being last on March 22 will stay alive. 

While a move up the table is impossible for Lahore tonight, for Quetta it is mathematically possible but highly unlikely, thanks to table-toppers Multan's whopping run rate of 1.415 (no other team is in positive).

Head to head

Here is a surprising statistical nugget. Quetta are the most consistent side in PSL history and Lahore by far the worst. Yet, Lahore have beaten Quetta more times (3) than they have beaten any other team. 

The h-2-h record obviously still is tilted massively towards Quetta (5-3) but Lahore can find some confidence in the spin we just gave above.

More cause of optimism will be that Lahore absolutely crushed Quetta the last time they met, which was in 2019. Nepalese legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane had wreaked havoc that night, taking four wickets for just 10 runs and helping restrict Quetta to just 106, which AD de Villiers and co had chased with ease. FYI, Fakhar Zaman (4) had failed in that game too.

What are Lahore's problems? 

1- Their frontline batsman Fakhar Zaman is a shadow of himself and completely shorn off confidence.

2- The batting looks weak after top three or four

3- With Haris Rauf out, Usman Shinwari leaking runs but not picking wickets, and Salman Irshad inexperienced and a bit too average, they are struggling to find a partner for Shaheen Shah Afridi. 

Prediction

Logic, conventional wisdom, history and everything else screams that we pick against Lahore. But the hopeless romantics that we are, we are backing the Qalandars to buck the trend, even if there are reports that Afridi is a bit doubtful for the match.

Over to you:


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