Karachi Kings players celebrating a wicket (photo - Getty Images)
Lahore Qalandars and Karachi Kings will fight in the second semifinal of Pakistan Super League in Lahore tomorrow.
Karachi Kings finished the league stage at second position with five wins from ten matches and going to semifinal with a win and will look to continue their winning run. Kings have a balanced side and their batsmen and bowlers are in fine form. Batting is being carried by Babar Azam and Sharjeel Khan and the likes of Cameron Delport and Chadwick Walton too have played some good knocks and in bowling Mohammed Amir, Umer Khan, Chris Jordan and Imad Wasim too have done well so far. On the other hand, Lahore Qalandars will play their first ever semifinal and they will look to make it bigger by winning it but the absence of last match’s centurion Chris Lynn and David Wiese will hurt them and all responsibility will be on Fakhar Zaman, Samit Patel and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Match Details :
Match : LAH vs KAR, Lahore Qalandars vs Karachi Kings, Pakistan Super League 2020
Date : 17 March 2020
Time : 7.30 PM IST
Venue : Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
Head to Head :
T20 Matches – 10
Lahore Qalandars won – 4
Karachi Kings won – 6
Lahore Qalandars after losing four of the first five games returned to winning ways and put up some good performances and went on to win four of the last five matches. On the other hand, Karachi Kings have been good since the start of this season and here we’ll analyse them ahead of this clash and will also make cricket match prediction.
Strengths : Karachi Kings are strengths are their openers Babar Azam and Sharjeel Khan who are giving good starts and bowling attack of Chris Jordan, Mohammed Amir, Umer Khan and Imad Wasim who pick up wickets whenever opposition tries to take game away from them. On the other hand, Lahore’s strengths is their explosive batting line up as openers Fakhar Zaman, Sohail Akhtar, Chris Lynn and Ben Dunk playing attacking cricket.
Weaknesses : The departure of Alex Hales have weakened Karachi’s middle order and all responsibility will be on Babar Azam and Sharjeel Khan and if one of them fails then they could be in trouble as middle order isn’t in good touch. On the other hand, Lahore’s weakness is their bowling attack especially pacers who except Shaheen Shah Afridi are leaking a lot of runs in death overs.
As we have already talked about Karachi Kings and Lahore Qalandars’s league stage performances. Karachi Kings have a better bowling attack while Lahore are ahead in batting department so it’ll be a contest between Karachi Kings’ bowling vs Lahore Qalandars’ bowling. Although toss will play a major role here as it’s a night game and dew will affect it so both the sides would love to chase. Seeing both teams’ performances and history our today match prediction is that Karachi Kings is favourite for this encounter.
Following are the odds for this match on two most famous betting sites –
Bet365 : Lahore Qalandars : 2.10, Karachi Kings : 1.72
Betway : Lahore Qalandars : 2.20, Karachi Kings : 1.61
On the basis of performances of both sides in this season of Pakistan Super League following players are good picks for fantasy cricket teams
Karachi Kings :
Babar Azam – 345 runs at 49.3 in 9 innings (3*50)
Mohammad Amir – 10 wickets at 26.20 in 9 innings
Imad Wasim – 121 runs and 5 wickets in 9 matches
Lahore Qalandars :
Ben Dunk – 266 runs at 53.20 in 7 innings (2*50)
Shaheen Shah Afridi – 13 wickets at 18.92 in 9 innings
Samit Patel – 9 wickets at 20.4 and 137 runs in 9 matches
Mohammed Hafeez – 217 runs and 3 wickets in 10 matches
As we have already mentioned most inform players of Karachi Kings as well Lahore Qalandars so for dream11 prediction teams Ben Dunk, Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Samit Patel and Mohammed Amir are must picks and the likes of Chris Jordan, Imad Wasim and Fakhar Zaman too can be picked as per their credit values.