Sharjah: Will Karachi Kings be able to conquer defending champions Islamabad United in the play-off at the Sharjah Cricket stadium on Wednesday? The clash is special in many ways due to the journey both teams have taken to reach the play off.
Karachi were reeling at the bottom of the table and at one stage they looked as though they were near the exit door of this edition of the PSL. They not only bounced back to finish third but also now look as if their players are in form, especially with star batsman Chris Gayle having peaked at the right time.
Islamabad are the champions of the tournament and it is surprising they are last among the four teams in the play-off table. They have a team that can beat anyone on their day with experienced captain Misbah Ul Haq as their leading light. The million dollar question is whether it will be their day at the Sharjah stadium.
Islamabad team coach Dean Jones is hoping that his players will deliver. “The one thing about this Islamabad team is that they won’t give in as you must have seen right throughout this tournament. A lot of things had not gone our way, we won only three tosses, we pushed them [Karachi] right till the last ball. We had a lot of things going against us at the start of the tournament, as you know they are well documented and now we qualified for the play-offs so we have got to play on and see what happens.”
As inspiring as Misbah is Karachi skipper Sangakkara. A veteran of many battles, Sangakkara knows how tense matches have to be played. “It’s T20 cricket, from game to game, things change. We need to take things as they come,” he said.
Sangakkara hailed the qualities in his players that rose to the challenge to ensure victory over Islamabad: “We made the right choice to bring (Chris) Gayle and he is a very positive lad. Kieron Pollard is very calm and cool on the field. Babar Azam has been batting well and Shadab Khan is a pretty impressive talent.” Karachi is expecting them to deliver again in this match.
An in-form Gayle is a worry for any opponent. His remark after his match-winning knock against Islamabad was: “Hopefully this is the beginning of more runs to come. I’ve practiced a lot and there is a little bit of niggle here and there. Hopefully I would like to continue in the next game.” That remark may disturb the Islamabad bowlers psychologically.
It should be noted that Islamabad have an attack made up of the tall and lanky pacer Mohammad Irfan, the accurate Mohammad Sami, the match-winner Saeed Ajmal and the experienced Shane Watson. They are backed by the in-form leg spinner Shadab.
Coach Jones accepts that Gayle will be a factor and that he will plan to stop him. “If you put a guy in a corner he will come out and bite. He is one of the greatest of all time at this form of the game. We will keep an eye on that.”
Islamabad too has two batsmen in Dwayne Smith and Shane Watson who can win matches on their own.
In short, this play-off is expected to be an intense battle between ball and bat. Interestingly, it could be anybody’s game, as unpredictable as the format.
