Preview

Quetta Gladiators and Karachi Kings will cross swords in the penultimate game of PSL 2021’s group stage on Saturday night.   

Quetta Gladiators have already been ruled out of contention for qualification into the play-offs. Having churned up an upset victory over Lahore Qalandars, the Sarfraz Ahmed-led side’s hopes had been bolstered. But they were quickly trampled over and buried by a crushing blow from Multan Sultans who overhauled the Gladiators by a gargantuan margin of 110 runs. With just one game left before their miserable campaign concludes, Quetta Gladiators will look to try different combinations and give some of the benched players a go in what essentially is a dead-rubber for them.  

On the contrary, it’s not so much a dead-rubber for Karachi Kings whose chances of qualification have been severely boosted by Lahore Qalandars’ humiliation at the hands of the Sultans last night. The equation is quite simple for Imad Wasim’s men: win the match against a depleted Quetta Gladiators outfit and clamber atop into the play-offs. While the Kings haven’t had an impressive run in this 2nd leg, too, they are coming off a morale-boosting win over archenemies, Qalandars, and will be itching to give their best tonight.  

Match Detail

Quetta Gladiators v Karachi Kings.

Date & Time: 

June 19, 2021 - 6.00 PM PST.


Venue:

 Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Predicted Playing XIs

Quetta Gladiators: Jake Weatherald, Usman Khan, Cameron Delport, Sarfaraz Ahmed (c&wk), Azam Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Jack Wildermuth, Usman Shinwari, Mohammad Hasnain, Zahir Khan and Khurram Shehzad

Karachi Kings: 

Sharjeel Khan, Martin Guptill, Babar Azam, Chadwick Walton (wk), Danish Aziz, Najeebullah Zadran, Imad Wasim (c), Mohd Amir, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Ilyas and Abbas Afridi

Fantasy XI 

Sarfraz Ahmed, Azam Khan, Chadwick Walton, Babar Azam (c), Sharjeel Khan (vc), Jake Weatherald, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Amir, Khurram Shehzad and Noor Ahmad

Pitch Report and Weather Conditions

No pattern has emerged in Abu Dhabi as far as the 2nd leg of PSL 2021 is concerned. A glimpse at recent results suggests that the mercurialness of the tracks on offer is a factor to consider. While teams have managed to chase down totals in excess of 190 runs, there have been instances where totals in the vicinity of 150 have been difficult to chase down. Both captains are, however, still likely to prefer chasing in these conditions with the dew factor becoming much more prominent later in the night. As far as the weather conditions are concerned, temperatures are usually high during daytime and begin to fall to lower 30s (degrees Celsius) in night.