On song Kings face potent Zalmi today

KARACHI: Buoyed up by their last two successive wins holders Karachi Kings will be looking to put in their best when they face former champions Peshawar Zalmi in the Eliminator-1 of the HBL PSL-6 at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Monday (today).

The match starts at 11 pm PST. The winners of this game will face the losers of the Qualifier between Islamabad United and Multan Sultans in the Eliminator-2 on Tuesday (tomorrow).

Zalmi finished the league stage at the third spot, slightly better than Kings on net run-rate as both had got ten points each. After moving to Abu Dhabi with six points in their pocket Kings faced issues and just a few days ago they needed two back-to-back wins to stay in contention. And they lived up to the billing as they beat both Lahore Qalandars and Quetta Gladiators on trot to make it to the playoffs, finishing fourth on the points table.

Lahore got eliminated with ten points but with a poor net run-rate. Kings will be looking forward to Mr consistent Babar Azam who has been marvellous so far, having scored 501 runs in ten games at a staggering average of 71.56 which contained six fifties.

Sharjeel Khan is in good touch and so is Najeebullah Zadran and Chadwick Walton. Martin Guptil is also expected to rise to the occasion as he has been seen to have found his touch a bit following some poor batting form.

The plus point of Karachi Kings is that their skipper Imad Wasim has regained confidence both in batting and bowling. He is expected to lead from the front in what could be a super knock-out game.

King’s ace-bowler Mohammad Amir did a wonderful 19th over against Lahore the other day and showed his class. Kings would need his huge contribution in the knock-out show where dew factor may also affect the things.

Amir will be backed by Arshad Iqbal, Mohammad Ilyas and rookie Afghan’s spinner Noor Ahmed. Abbas Afridi, who leaked more runs against Lahore, is also an option for Kings as he is a good bowler.

Meanwhile, Zalmi lost their original gloss in batting after their key top order batsman David Miller left them a few days ago after winning some matches for them. But still their top order is potent, having the likes of in-form Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Hazratullah Zazai, dangerous Sherfane Rutherford who can turn the things around within no time.

Wahab Riaz, the skipper, will lead the bowling department, also having Sameen Gul, Umaid Asif, Shoaib Malik and a few spin options in the form of Waqar Stanakzai.

The other day in their last game against Islamabad United Zalmi’s bowling could not click as United posted 247 and Zalmi then missed the chase, losing by 15 runs following some spirited batting display in the high-scoring game.

But Zalmi’s head coach Darren Sammy said after the game they would make amends for that if they got a chance to play in the playoffs. “So hopefully whenever that day comes we will put out a much better display of bowling,” Sammy said.