This is my first PSL 5 review and I am going to review the tournament up until the 6th of March 2020.
The 5th edition of the Pakistan Super League kicked off with a bang at the National Stadium Karachi. The whole country is both jubilant and thankful for the tournament being completely organized in Pakistan this time.
The opening ceremony however did not live up to the expectations. I guess, that’s why they kept asking ‘Tayyaar Ho?’ in the song before the tournament. Must’ve been some encrypted messaging between the artists and the PCB. Well, we now know the answer to that question. PCB was anything but Tayyaar when it came it to the opening ceremony.
The tournament kicked off with the defending champions, Quetta Gladiators beating Islamabad United in a match that saw Muhammad Hasnain shine with 4 wickets, Sarfraz Ahmed enjoying the support of his home crowd for a well fought 21 off 18 deliveries and Ben Cutting finishing off the run-chase without a shade of emotion on his face. The highlight of the match, however, was Azam Khan. The youngster silenced his critics with a quickfire 59, 38 of which came off boundaries. Pakistan had found a new star… or moon, I guess.
Karachi shook its own fans in the second game by beating Peshawar Zalmi. The Kings took their name seriously for the first time, it seemed. Well, at least Babar Azam certainly did. The current number one T20 batsman of the world hit a fantastic 78 opening the innings alongside Sharjeel Khan who was making a comeback after his two-and-a-half-year ban. Karachi posted a massive total of 201 on the board and still almost lost the match as the Zalmis put up a fantastic fight but ended up 10 runs short at the end.
Normalcy resumed with the third game when Lahore Qalandars faced Multan Sultans and we all know who wins in a match that has Lahore in it.
This is how all six teams started out their tournament this year but since then, only Multan seem to have carried on with the winning momentum. Till their game on the 6th of March, Multan Sultans have won 4 out of their 6 games. While the defending champions, Quetta, seem to have lost their way quite badly this year as they’ve lost more matches than they’ve won so far and are no. 5 on the table so far. That’s the lowest any team other than Lahore are allowed to go in the PSL.
Karachi Kings have shown some spark this year and they look like a fighting unit this time. Peshawar and Islamabad have been hot and cold. The best thing that has happened to Islamabad United this year is Shadab Khan as their captain. The leggie has shown great heart and confidence and is the only captain in the tournament so far who’s visibly leading from the front. Speaking of captains, Javed Afridi has appointed Wahab Riaz as the new Zalmi captain and Darren Khan Sammy has been promoted as Head Coach of the side mid-tournament. They must have mid-year increments and promotions at Haier, I guess.
Shan Masood as a captain has been quiet but effective (he was mocked quite a lot before the tournament but so far, he’s been silently answering the critics), Sohail Akhtar is trying his best, that’s all I can say for him. Quetta have to rethink their strategy. Sarfraz Ahmed is repeating the same mistakes he made as a captain when he led the national side. He has to step forward, take initiative and stop relying on Watson and Cutting to win him matches all the time. Azam Khan is yet to impress again in the tournament after his first innings but something tells me that he’ll still be considered seriously for the national side by Misbah-ul-Haq; I just have this strange feeling. Anyways, Luke Ronchi from Islamabad United is the leading top scorer in the tournament so far while Muhammad Hasnain (Quetta Gladiators) is the leading wicket taker with 14 wickets. The tournament is still pretty much open for the top 5 teams. I really do not know what to say about Lahore Qalandars.
So far, we have had some great individual performances with the ball from Muhammad Amir, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Muhammad Hasnain while Dilbar Hussain and Umer Khan have impressed the audiences with their talent. Rilee Roussouw and Kamran Akmal have scored the two centuries that have been hit so far this season, while Ben Dunk, Babar Azam, and a few others have played some good match-winning knocks. Haider Ali seems promising while Ben Cutting seems to have made a habit of coming in down the order and making batting look ever so easy.
Just in case you were wondering, Yes! Kamran Akmal has already dropped not one but two catches so far in the tournament.
The tournament, so far, has had its fair share of technical glitches too including one of the floodlight towers going off during a game, the action replay controversy in the Quetta- Peshawar match and the ultra-edge technology not being available for some time.
We have 11 more matches before the qualifier, eliminators and the final. Let’s hope the best team wins. Let’s hope Pakistan wins!
Pakistan Zindabad!
-Hammad A. Mateen
Hammad Abdul Mateen's Blog 