#psl 4

Cricket and the PSL return to Pakistan today! Lahore Qalandars will take on Islamabad United at Karachi's National Stadium in an hour.

The matches were scheduled for earlier in the week and 3 out of the 8 matches to be played in this leg were supposed to be held in Lahore but because of the tensions between Pakistan and India and Lahore's close proximity to the border and the closure of its airspace, they were shifted to Karachi.

One of my favorite things from this year's PSL is the fact that big foreign players like Alex Hales, Chris Jordan and Shane Watson decided to play in Pakistan.

I have midterms to study for (and I'm genuinely failing micro econ so if anyone here is interested in tutoring me pls show up) so I'm gonna procrastinate n make an update post woohoo

The group stages are now over! As you all know, we've started the Pakistan leg of the competition and now we've reached the qualifiers! Karachi Kings, Quetta Gladiators, Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United have reached the qualifiers while Lahore Qalandars (for the 4th year in a row) and Multan Sultans (for the 2nd year in a row - this is also their second appearance in the competition) have finished last and second last, respectively and so are out of the competition.

Also should point out that ALL of the foreign players have flown to Pakistan for this leg despite the threat of war (which has pretty much dissipated - lol @ India for that huge ass scare they gave us) so kudos to them! In particular Shane Watson from Quetta Gladiators has also flown out which is a huge deal because he's the first big Australian name to come to Pakistan in like 12 years or smth so!! thats huge!!

the matches have been pretty intense esp yesterday's Karachi vs Quetta where Quetta needed 5 off of 6 balls and Karachi won by 1 run thanks to Usman Shinwari's brilliant last over where he got 3 wickets! Hassan Ali also got a hattrick vs Karachi today so that was pretty entertaining (he plays for Peshawar).

We have 4 matches left which are

Peshawar Zalmi vs Quetta Gladiators who play in a Qualifier on Wednesday at 7:00 pm (+5:00 GMT)

this match is between the teams who topped the table and decides who goes directly to the final aka the winner will go directly to the final while the loser will have to play in eliminator 2 vs the team who wins eliminator 1 (ie either Karachi or Lahore as written below). It's a bit confusing so do send me an ask if u don't understand!!

Interesting players to watch for this match are

- Darren Sammy, Hassan Ali, Tymal Mills (who is a fave of mine), Keiron Pollard, Liam Dawson from Peshawar Zalmi

- Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo and others from Quetta

Islamabad United vs Karachi Kings in the Eliminator 1 on Thursday at 7:00 pm (+5:00 GMT)

Interesting players to watch are

- Shadab Khan (the captain!!) + others from ISLU

- Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir and Colin Ingram from Karachi Kings

Eliminator 2 on Friday @ 7:00 pm (+5:00 GMT) (winner of eliminator 1 vs loser of the qualifier)

The schedule and full squad list can be found here.