Abu Dhabi set to host PSL

LAHORE: The HBL Pakistan Super League is set to return Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium next month. The picturesque stadium will host 20 matches of the sixth edition, which will mark the second instance of the venue staging HBL PSL games.

In 2019, the stadium hosted the HBL PSL for the first time when four league matches of the fourth season were played there. Overall T20 numbers at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium The venue has so far staged 124 T20 matches including 48 T20Is.

Pakistan national men’s cricket team boast six wins from nine matches here between 2010 and 2018. There have been a total of eight instances of 200-plus totals at the venue with Ireland’s 225 for seven against Afghanistan in the 2013-14 season being the highest.

Nigeria’s 66 for nine against Ireland in 20 overs in the 2019-20 season is the lowest T20 team total at the venue. Pakistan men’s team bowled out Australia for 89 in 2018, which is the eighth-lowest team total at the venue.

A total of six T20 centuries have been scored here. Qalandars captain Sohail Akhtar is one of the six centurions. The right-handed hard-hitting batsman scored 100 off 56 balls (11 fours, five sixes) in his side’s six-wicket win over Yorkshire in an Abu Dhabi T20 Trophy fixture in October 2018.

Ireland’s William Porterfield tops the list with his 127 not out against USA in the 2013-14 season. Two five-wicket hauls have been registered here in T20 cricket. Denmark’s Aftab Ahmed took six wickets for 22 against Papua New Guinea in 2011-12. VV Chakravarthy took five wickets for 20 runs for Kolkata Knight Riders against Delhi Capitals in an Indian Premier League match played in the 2020-21 season.