After enduring back-to-back defeats, the Babar Azam-led Karachi Kings will eye their first win of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2022 season when they face historically underperforming Lahore Qalandars in the second match of Sunday double-header in Karachi. (More Cricket News)
Karachi Kings, the 2020 winners, were thrashed by defending champions Multan Sultans in the season opener on Thursday. Put into bat, they could manage only 124/5, then allowed the Sultans to reach the target in the penultimate over for a seven-wicket defeat.
It was followed by another low-scoring match against Quetta Gladiators. Azam again lost the toss and were asked to bat first. They then ran into an inspired Naseem Shah, who claimed the season's first five-wicket haul. And defending 113 was never going to be easy. But the Gladiators made it one-way traffic, winning the match by eight wickets in 15.5 overs.
Lahore Qalandars, who won only two matches last season, did well to post a big total of 206/5 against the Sultans, thanks to blistering knocks from Fakhar Zaman (73 off 35) and Kamran Ghulam (43 off 31). But Sultans' skipper Mohammad Rizwan (69 off 42, his second fifty) and Shan Masood (83 off 50) stitched an opening stand of 150 runs in 14.2 overs to deflate Qalandars' strong bowling attack and pulled off a record run chase. Captain Shaheen Afridi conceded 40 for his three late wickets, while Rashid Khan claimed one for 28 in a relatively quiet outing. It's redemption time for two of the world's best bowlers.
Head-to-head
In their previous 13 meetings, Karachi Kings have won eight times against Lahore Qalandars' five. They shared the honours last season. Qalandars won the first leg in Karachi by six wickets, while the Kings the return leg in Abu Dhabi by seven runs.
Match and telecast details
Match: Match 6 of Pakistan Super League 2022, Karachi Kings vs Lahore Qalandars
Date: January 30 (Sunday), 2022
Time: 8:00 PM IST/ 7:30 PM local
Venue: National Stadium, Karachi
TV Channels: Sony Sports Network
Live Streaming: SonyLIV
In Pakistan: A Sports, PTV Sports, Ten Sports, Daraz, Tapmad and Cricwick.
Elsewhere...
Willow TV (North America), Flow Sports (Caribbean), Sky Sports (United Kingdom), Sky Sport (New Zealand) and SuperSport (Africa).
Playing XIs in the previous match
Karachi Kings (vs Quetta Gladiators): Sharjeel Khan, Babar Azam (c), Joe Clarke (wk), Mohammad Nabi, Tom Lammonby, Lewis Gregory, Imad Wasim, Aamer Yamin, Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Taha, Mohammad Ilyas.
Lahore Qalandars (vs Multan Sultans): Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Ghulam, Samit Patel, Ben Dunk (wk), David Wiese, Rashid Khan, Shaheen Afridi (c), Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan.
Squads
Karachi Kings: Sharjeel Khan, Babar Azam (c), Joe Clarke (wk), Mohammad Nabi, Tom Lammonby, Lewis Gregory, Imad Wasim, Aamer Yamin, Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Taha, Mohammad Ilyas, Umaid Asif, Rohail Nazir, Jordan Thompson, Mohammad Amir, Ian Cockbain, Sahibzada Farhan, Qasim Akram, Talha Ahsan.
Lahore Qalandars: Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hafeez, Ben Dunk (wk), David Wiese, Samit Patel, Rashid Khan, Shaheen Afridi (c), Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan, Mohammad Imran Randhawa, Sohail Akhtar, Ahmed Daniyal, Dean Foxcroft, Matty Potts, Maaz Khan, Akif Javed, Zeeshan Ashraf, Syed Faridoun.
