Two-times winner Islamabad will end their league-stage campaign with possible playoffs rival Multan in the Pak T20 League 2021. Both times had a winning campaign in Abu Dhabi.
Match Timings: June 19, 11:30 PM IST
Team Preview
Two in-form and consistent sides in the Abu Dhabi leg, Islamabad and Multan will face each other in the final league-stage encounter of Pak T20 League 2021. Islamabad maintained their momentum from Karachi to Abu Dhabi, while Multan bettered their quality of the game from Karachi to Abu Dhabi. Multan is the only undefeated side in Abu Dhabi as they won all four games here.
Under Mohammad Rizwan, Multan did wonder after a disappointing first half in the first half. They won only one game in Karachi out of five but Abu Dhabi gave them happiness. After beating Lahore last night, Multan moved to second in the table. Their net run rate is so strong as they qualified for the playoffs with one game in hand. Maqsood scored a half-century and set a total of 170 for Lahore. Multan made the task of defending it through Dhani’s 4-wicket haul and Lahore bowled out on just 89. For the second straight game, they bowled out the opposition below 100 and they are in the list of top 5 biggest victories in PSL. Rizwan’s troops are showing collective brilliance and we are seeing new match-winning every time. Dhani is now the leading wicket-taker and Rizwan comes second in the top run-getters list.
Meanwhile, the same applies to Islamabad and they are also on the same boat. They have lost just one game in Abu Dhabi and the defeat came in their first match against Lahore. They are also unbeaten from last three match. In previous game, they overcame Peshawar in the high-scoring game. They posted the tournament’s highest-ever total, courtesy of Khawaja’s century. Bowlers were not in good touch as Peshawar came close to chase down this total but Islamabad managed to hold the nerves. Khawaja captained the side and scored a ton which is a great sign for them. They have a strong batting combination and depth as well. Shadab might be back in the side or management can give him rest for the important qualifier game on Monday.
Multan have the upper hand on Islamabad when it comes to the last five encounters. They have won three games out of the last five and chasing sides have won all five games. It means toss will play a major role. Both times will try to make the most out of it as they will face again in the qualifier game.
Pitch Report
Abu Dhabi’s surface is showing different results and we have seen dominating batting and dominating bowling. It’s a good track to bat and bowlers also have slight help from the pitch. We might expect a top thriller between these two in-form sides.
Possible XI
Islamabad
Colin Munro, Usman Khawaja, Shadab Khan (c), Hussain Talat, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Muhammad Akhlaq (wk), Hasan Ali, Ali Khan, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Akif Javed
Multan
Shan Masood, Mohammad Rizwan (c & wk), Sohaib Maqsood, Johnson Charles, Rilee Rossouw, Khushdil Shah, Sohail Tanvir, Blessing Muzarabani, Shahnawaz Dhani, Imran Khan, Imran Tahir
Key Players
Islamabad
Colin Munro
2 half-centuries on this surface, a hard-hitting batsman in the opening slot
Iftikhar Ahmed
A solid middle-order batsman, 189 runs this season at an SR of 130.34
Multan
Mohammad Rizwan
2nd leading run-scorer of the season, 444 runs at an avg of 55.50
Shahnawaz Dhani
18 wickets in 8 games at an avg of 14
