It’ll be two former champions duking it out in the final of the Pakistan Super League’s Third edition on Sunday, as defending champions Peshawar Zalmi take on Islamabad United in the final at National Stadium Karachi.
But both teams being former champions will not do much harm to the significance of the game, because the venue being Karachi holds enough importance on its own. Even more importantly, this might be the final cricketing outing for Islamabad United Captain Misbah ul Haq if he manages to play the final in some capacity or the other despite his wrist injury.
With three matches of this edition of the PSL taking place in Pakistan, this year’s tournament has undergone an ambitious turn around from the previous two years and has only grown the PSL brand name. With some significant shakeups in the tournament structure, draft selections, new players entering the field, and last year’s spot-fixing scare well and truly out of the way, the PSL seems to be heading towards an unmistakably forward direction.
Karachi factor:
Preperations for the PSL final at National Stadium Karachi
This year’s edition came with big expectations because it was being talked about even before the 2017 tournament ended. It was the success of the final game held in Lahore that leads the PCB to announce the hosting of the PSL 3 final in Karachi, with the two play-off games taking place back-to-back in Lahore.
There was much speculation as to whether the announcement of Karachi as the final host was a wise decision or merely posturing,but the board stuck to its gun and has made Karachi work as a venue, with tickets already sold out and much fanfare surrounding the return of cricket to Karachi for the first time since 2009.
Tournament shake up:
The Multan Sultans were off to a flyer in the first half of the group stages
Another factor that had been the cause for some excitement before the tournament kicked off was the introduction of the Multan Sultans, an inclusion which not only added some serious depth to the group stages of the tournament but also increased the total number of games that would be played.
The introduction of this new team also meant that not only would new players be brought in to fill the gaps, but that the existing team structures that had been pretty much the same for the past couple of years would get a serious mix-up.
For starters, Multan poached Karachi Captain Shoaib Malik to serve as the captain of the Sultans. It also brought in new players including South African leggie Imran Tahir. The ripple effect meant that Karachi would get a new captain in the form of Imad Wasim and that former Islamabad all-rounder Shane Watson would go to Quetta, while Shahid Afridi moved over to Karachi from Peshawar.
While West Indies opener Chris Gayle was finally put out of his PSL misery this year, and Mitchell Johnson canceled last minute, new introductions included Rilee Rousseau, Luke Ronchi, Imran Tahir and others.
Lahore misses out again:
Lahore disappointed their fans for the third time in a row.
The addition of a new team in the PSL should have meant a more competitive group stage. The fact that Multan was off to a flyer and topped the points table for the first half of the tournament would indicate that even further. While we may have the two former champions facing each other today, there was a great chance that they would be the two teams that would duck out early in the tournament for some time.
Lahore, however, managed to flounder again, losing 6 games on the trot and assuring themselves an out from the tournament early, assuring that there would be no real speculation over who would be qualifying. But as Multan eventually went down in flames, the teams heading off to the playoffs were once again the same ones that have done so for the past two years.
Lahore playoffs:
Lahore hosted two of the playoffs for this year’s tournament
The premise of the PSL playoffs is that the top two teams first get a chance to go straight to the final, and if that doesn’t work out, they get a shot at going up against whoever wins between the bottom-ranked qualifying teams.
A strange combo of quarter and semifinals, it was good to see that while the final was in Karachi, the playoffs came to Pakistan too and were played in front of sold-out Lahore crowds, even if the weather tried to play spoilsport.
All three tournaments now have had one of the two bottom-ranked teams making it to the final, with Islamabad actually winning the first one after qualifying at number 4. Once again, number 4 ranked Peshawar have made it to the final, and so have number one ranked Islamabad, leaving Karachi and Quetta to the wind.
What is different is that when Peshawar won they were sitting on top of the points table while Islamabad came out on top from number 4. The two are switched in these roles this time, so whoever wins, a new precedent will be set either way.
