Pakistan Super League: fixtures, state of play and more as tournament resumes after nine-month break

Familiar names like Shane Watson and Kieron Pollard won't feature in playoffs

Babar Azam will now turn out for Karachi Kings in the PSL final.  AFP

The PSL will resume in Karachi on Saturday after a nine-month break between its league phase and the playoffs.

Table-topping Multan Sultans will be looking to complete the job they started, although the landscape has changed significantly since March.

Fixtures

Saturday, November 14, 2pm (UAE time) – Qualifier 1: Multan Sultans v Karachi Kings

6.30pm – Eliminator: Lahore Qalandars v Peshawar Zalmi

Sunday, November 15, 7pm – Qualifier 2: Loser of qualifier 1 v winner of the eliminator

Tuesday, November 17, 7pm – Final

Note: All matches at the National Stadium, Karachi

Broadcast

The matches will be available to watch live on YouTube

What happened?

The PSL was the last major cricket competition to be halted before all sport was shutdown by the coronavirus outbreak in March.

Even then, the organisers did their best to rush the competition to a conclusion. First, they carried on with league phase matches behind closed doors.

Then they altered the schedule for the playoffs, from the original eliminator format, to two semi-finals and a final, in a bid to rush the event through to a conclusion.

However, the event was halted once Alex Hales, who had already returned home to the UK because of the increasing travel restrictions at the time, reported to his Karachi franchise that he had Covid-like symptoms.

There was much deliberation in the time since as to whether the event would be able to be played to a conclusion.

But a window has been decided, and the original format reinstated.

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PSL 2020 team of the tournament so far

Where do the teams stand?

Multan Sultans were the outstanding side in the tournament before the break.

They finished top of the league, and for a while it looked as though they might be handed the title on that basis when it looked like it might be impossible to reschedule the remaining games.

All parties were intent to play the knockout fixtures, though, and a window was agreed.

As the top side, Multan will face second placed Karachi Kings, with the winner advancing direct to the final.

The loser will have a second chance, against the winner of the eliminator match between third-placed Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi – who are the only one of the remaining sides to have won the title before.

What has changed?

In the last match that was played in this competition, on March 15, Shane Watson was man of the match. Since then, he has played a whole IPL, and retired from the sport.

He is not the only one who will not be coming back. The sides have each announced altered squads for the playoffs.

Hales is returning for Karachi, but his English colleague James Vince will not make the trip, after testing positive for Covid this week.

After winning the IPL with Mumbai Indians in Dubai on Tuesday, Kieron Pollard will miss the trip to Pakistan.

He had been due to play for Peshawar Zalmi, but will head to New Zealand for West Indies’ limited overs tour instead.