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The Multan Sultans will host Quetta Gladiators on their home ground for the first match scheduled to take place on Saturday. This will be both the teams’ fifth match in the tournament, and they will be looking to extend their lead at the top of the table.
Historically, the Sultans don’t have a great record against the former champions as they have lost three out of their four matches against the Gladiators. However, their team is very different this time around and have been playing with renewed energy.
The Sultans have been suffering due to their top-order batting for some time now. That all changed in their previous match against the Karachi Kings at home where they decided to experiment with their batting order.
Moeen Ali and the young Zeeshan Ashraf fired at the top and Shan Masood managed to take control of the match at No.3, giving the Sultans a high total to defend and win the match eventually.
The Men in Green could continue with the same order in this match and try to post a similar total early on in the day. Their bowling has been great so far as Mohammad Irfan, Moeen Ali, Imran Tahir, and Shahid Afridi have all been among the wickets and have been able to pull back the run rate whenever needed. They will look to send the fans home happy in their final match at the Multan Cricket Stadium.
Quetta Gladiators had a great game last time around against Islamabad United. They bowled first but couldn’t restrict the Islamabad batsmen as Sohail Khan, Ben Cutting, and Muhammad Hasnain leaked too many runs. However, Cutting's exploits late in the inning helped them chase down the 188-run target set by United in the last over.
Jason Roy, Mohammad Nawaz, and Sarfaraz Ahmed all made important contributions in the chase and will look to replicate their performance against the Sultans. Shane Watson has been a bit off-colour lately and will need to step up like he’s done in the past to guide his team in the initial overs of the clash.
Ahmed Shehzad has not managed to make it out of the 10s and could be dropped for this all-important match.
The Gladiators’ bowlers have been good in the previous matches but their last match didn’t go so well. Sohail Khan, in particular, had no clue where to bowl and his luck ran out in the last over of the inning. He could be shown the door in favour of Anwar Ali, who has been in and out of the team lately.
Both teams look good on paper and have had a better tournament as compared to the other teams. Multan Sultans, however, could reign supreme over the Gladiators due to their superior bowling form and home advantage.
Match details
Tournament: Pakistan Super League Season 5, 2020
Venue: Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan
Date: 29th February 2020
Time: 2.00 PM PST onwards
Pitch report
The pitch in Multan has proven to be as good for the batsmen as it has for the bowlers and it depends on who puts in more effort at the end of the day. We’ve seen the fans from Multan fill up the stadium nicely and the support for the home side has been great.
Shan Masood’s policy of hoping to lose the toss and allowing the other team to pick what to do on the pitch has worked well, and he will look to employ the same strategy in this game.
However, the team batting first in this day game will likely have the advantage over their opponents, just like we saw in the last match.
Predicted XIs
Multan Sultans: Moeen Ali, Shan Masood (Captain), Ravi Bopara, Rilee Rossouw, Khushdil Shah, Zeeshan Ashraf (Wicketkeeper), Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Muhammad Ilyas, Mohammad Irfan, and Imran Tahir.
Quetta Gladiators: Jason Roy, Shane Watson, Khurram Manzoor, Azam Khan, Sarfaraz Ahmed (Captain & Wicketkeeper), Ben Cutting, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Tymal Mills, Mohammad Hasnain, and Anwar Ali.
Where to watch the matches in Pakistan?
Multan Sultans v Quetta Gladiators will be telecast LIVE on PTV Sports.
Live stream details
The live stream for Multan Sultans v Quetta Gladiators will be available on Cricingiff and Cricketgateway.
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