LAHORE: It will be important not to show complacency as Lahore Qalandars take on bottom-of-the-table Quetta Gladiators at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday in a Pakistan Super League match.
While the in-form Qalandars – with eight points from four wins from five matches so far – will be looking to continue their winning streak at home, the Sarfaraz Ahmed-captain Gladiators have just one victory to spare. Faced with a do-or-die scenario. Five games.
Still, the Shaheen Shah Afridi-led Qalandars, who have beaten Peshawar Zalmi (40 runs) and Islamabad United (110 runs) in their last two PSL matches, will be expected to put up any kind of effort. Will avoid complacency which can hurt either side in T20 war. Against a weak looking opposition.
Fighting Qalandars opener Fakhar Zaman feels his team needs to be alert.
The left-hander, who scored the most runs (235 in five matches) for the Qalandars in the PSL, boasted, “Gladiators have a pace attack and no opponent should be taken lightly in the T20 format because one day Any individual can change the situation.” -8, made these remarks while talking to reporters on Wednesday.
“Every team tries their best to perform well and while our team has done well so far, we will try to do our best against the Gladiators. We have a good [team] combination. But our real strength is the bowling which includes [pacers] Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and [leg-spinner] Rashid Khan,” the opener stressed.
“Fortunately our batsmen are also doing well.”
Expressing his views, Umar Gul, the bowling coach of Gladiators, said that after the 63-run defeat by Islamabad United in their last match played in Karachi, his team had to identify their shortcomings against United and make those mistakes. A detailed meeting was held to avoid
“Gladiators will be in a different outfit today in Lahore as the feedback from our bowlers is good,” Umar said in a media talk while praising speedster Naseem Shah’s brilliant bowling.
Umar praised Multan Sultans fast bowler Ehsanullah, who is the league’s leading wicket-taker with 14 wickets at an impressive average of 9.35, adding that he is the best case to represent Pakistan.
Although Shaheen and Haris are in good form, we can expect a tough match tomorrow.