PSL embraces DRS for playoffs

SHARJAH: In another first, the HBL Pakistan Super League on Tuesday used the Decision Review System in the first playoff of its second season that featured Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

It was a rare sight in a Twenty20 game when Zalmi spinner Mohammad Asghar opted for a review in the fifth over of the Quetta innings hoping that he had trapped Kevin Pietersen even though the impact was visibly outside off. The DRS proved it and Zalmi were left ruing their poor use of DRS.

Just hours before the start of the match, PSL authorities had confirmed that they will be using DRS for the three playoffs in Sharjah and Dubai.

Najam Sethi, the PSL chairman, made the decision public by tweeting, “another first from #HBLPSL. DRS to be used in the #HBLPSL play-off matches.”

Agencies add: While the ball-tracking technology Hawk-Eye has been used as a tool by the broadcasters since the start of the PSL, it has not been part of the umpires’ decision-making process. This development possibly also marks the first time DRS will be used in a T20 contest at either franchise or international level. Each side will be allowed one review per innings in the same way the technology is used at ODI level. DRS is, however, not expected to be available for the PSL final, which Sethi announced yesterday would be held in Lahore, as the company handling the Hawk-Eye technology will not travel to Pakistan.

Earlier this month, the ICC chief executives committee gave an in-principle approval for use of DRS for the first time in an ICC T20 tournament in 2018, with one review per team in the Women’s World T20 in the West Indies.