In this article, we preview Lahore Qalandars vs Islamabad United, the PSL match to be played in Karachi on 4 March 2021. We consider the likely elevens of the two sides and the current form of their respective players before making our predictions about the probable result of the match. After four matches, LQ are in 4th position in the points table, while IU who have played three games are 4th – see the adjoining table.
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Their last PSL game against PZ on 27 February did not go United’s way. Batting first in the game, they collapsed to be all out in the 18th over. Alex Hales who carried his good form from the BBL to make 41 from 27 balls did not receive adequate support from the other United batsmen. The IU scorecard would have made even poorer reading but for cameos down the order by Hussain Talat who scored 22 from 15 balls and Asif Ali who made 19 from 12. For Zalmi, Wahab Riaz who took 4/17 and Saqib Mahmood who returned figures of 3/12 were the most successful bowlers. Zalmi won the game by 6 wickets.
In the last IU vs LQ encounter that took place in Lahore exactly a year ago, on 4 March 2020, IU prevailed by 71 runs.
Likely XIs:p>Lahore Qalandars: Fakhar Zaman, Sohail Akhtar (c), Joe Denly, Mohammad Hafeez, Ben Dunk, David Wiese, Zeeshan Ashraf, Samit Patel, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Ahmed Daniyal, Haris Rauf;Islamabad United: Paul Stirling, Alex Hales, Phil Salt, Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan (c), Hussain Talat, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim, Zafar Gohar.
Head-to-Headp>The head-to-head stats favour IU who have won 7 of their 10 games against LQ while losing just 2, with one match ending without result – see the adjoining table.
