KARACHI: Islamabad United will take on Peshawar Zalmi in a high-octane Pakistan Super League (PSL) III final at National Stadium Karachi here on Sunday (today). The NSK will host its first high-profile game since the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test in February 2009. The game is billed as a homecoming, what with Pakistan’s biggest city having been deprived of major cricket for almost a decade. The closing ceremony will be a star-studded affair. Among the stars who will be headlining the ceremony are pop stars Ali Zafar, Shehzad Roy, Strings band, Farhan Saeed and Aima Baig. Thousands of security personnel will be deployed in Karachi for its biggest cricket match in years, after a spate of attacks drove away foreign teams. Although some overseas players opted out, authorities have promised head-of-state level security at the NSK.
The T20 match has great significance for Pakistan as it gradually welcomes back international cricket, which ground to a halt after a deadly attack on Sri Lanka’s Test team in Lahore in 2009 which killed eight people and injured seven visiting players. As well as the final in Karachi, both eliminators were held in Lahore this week – a step forward from last year, when only the final was held on Pakistani soil. Karachi will also host three T20Is between Pakistan and the West Indies in early April, the first home series involving a Test-level team since 2009. Next year, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said it hopes to hold half of the PSL on home turf. Currently, most of the games are played in United Arab Emirates.
Both teams have one PSL title to their name, with Peshawar being defending champions, while Islamabad won the inaugural edition in 2016. Both are presently at the top of their game and made their way to the final with some brutal displays with the bat. There seems to be no real weak link in either team, as both are laden with experienced batsmen from top to middle, and boast powerful bowling attacks. Islamabad and Peshawar have the two best PSL win-loss ratios across three years. Islamabad have won 18 matches and lost 12, while Peshawar have won 19 and lost 13. Islamabad’s Faheem Ashraf is the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, with 17 wickets at a strike rate of 12.7 and an economy rate of 7.72. Peshawar’s Wahab Riaz is breathing down his neck with 16 wickets at an economy rate of 6.86 and a strike rate of 17.2.
The final is anticipated for its own merits as a contest, of course, but an absorbing mini-contest revolves around the dazzling form of each side’s wicketkeeper-batsman. Kamran Akmal and Luke Ronchi are both 36, have both been opening the batting, and presently sit at No. 1 and No. 3 on the PSL run charts with 424 and 383 runs respectively. Both are major reasons for their respective teams making the final this season. Both have exhibited extraordinary skill in power-hitting, and are brimming with the confidence, and will be at the forefront of their respective opposition bowling attacks leading into the game.
The stadium has, over the years, largely been isolated, only hosting domestic cricket, but the infrastructure was put back together a few months before the game. The stadium is still under renovation, but the facility has been prepared enough to make sure it is able to get going for the important game. The PCB, with the support of the Sindh Government, has decorated the city with posters of players from all six franchises and has lit up the area surrounding the stadium in order to increase the hype of the match. The stadium’s stands, VIP enclosures, entrance, parking, ground and pitch have all been renovated. Spectators will only be allowed to park their cars at the designated spots set by Sindh Police and government, where they will undergo a physical search by the police before their tickets are scanned by the PCB staff. After that, the PCB’s shuttle service will take spectators to the drop off point, where they will once again be scanned before they walk the final 300 meters to the stadium’s entrance. Vans will also be provided for the elderly and the disabled. Neither edibles nor power banks will be allowed and that only PCB-verified food stalls will be present inside the stadium.
Squads:
Islamabad United (likely): 1 Luke Ronchi (wk), 2 Sahibzada Farhan, 3 JP Duminy (capt), 4 Hussain Talat, 5 Samit Patel, 6 Asif Ali, 7 Chadwick Walton/Samuel Badree, 8 Shadab Khan, 9 Faheem Ashraf, 10 M. Sami, 11 Amad Butt
Peshawar Zalmi (likely): 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Andre Fletcher, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Saad Nasim, 5 Liam Dawson, 6 Darren Sammy (capt), 7 Chris Jordan, 8 Hasan Ali, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Umaid Asif, 11 Sameen Gul.
Match starts at 08:00 PM (PST)
Published in Daily Times, March 25th 2018.