Quetta Gladiators vs Lahore Qalandars

Lahore Qalandars

Lahore Qalandars (Urdu: لاہور قلندرز‬‎; Punjabi: لہور قلندرز; acronym LQ) is a Pakistani professional cricket franchise which plays in the Pakistan Super League. The home ground of the team is Gaddafi Stadium. It nominally represents the city of Lahore in the league.The team is owned by Qatar Lubricants Company Limited (QALCO). The team is currently captained by AB de Villiers, as regular captain Mohammad Hafeez is currently unavailable due to injury, and coached by Aqib Javed, a former Pakistani cricketer. Fakhar Zaman is the team's vice-captain. Lahore Qalandars was the second most expensive franchise and was one of the few teams sold to an international company. Fawad Rana is the owner of the team.

1Franchise history
- 1.12016 season
- 1.22017 season
- 1.32018 season
- 1.42019 season
2Team identity
3Current squad
4Management and coaching staff
5Captains
6Result summary
- 6.1Overall result in PSL
- 6.2Head-to-head record
7Statistics
- 7.1Most runs
- 7.2Most wickets
8Awards and achievements
9See also
10References

11External links

Franchise history

In 2015, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that the inaugural season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) would take place in February 2016 in the United Arab Emirates. On 3 December 2015, the PCB unveiled the owners of five city-based franchises. The Lahore franchise was sold to the Qatar Lubricants Company for US$25.1 million for a span of ten years, making it the second most expensive team of PSL (after the Karachi Kings, which sold for US$26 million).

In 2016, under Players Development Program (PDP), the Lahore Qalandars franchise organised "Jazz Rising Stars" trials across eight Pakistani cities, to identify upcoming youth talent. Shortlisted players would travel to Australia and train with Sydney Thunder, while the top two performers would get the opportunity to play for the Qalandars. During the programme an ambidextrous fast bowler, Yasir Jan from Rawalpindi, was identified by former Pakistan fast bowler Aqib Javed.

2016 season

Umar Akmal finished as the leading run-scorer in 2016 season with 335 runs in seven matches.

After drafting star players such as Chris Gayle, Umar Akmal, Dwayne Bravo, Azhar Ali and Yasir Shah in the initial player draft, Qalandars started the tournament with two consecutive losses against Karachi Kings and Peshawar Zalmi. Their first victory came against Quetta Gladiators. The team won only two of their eight group stage matches, although they could still have qualified for the play-off section of the tournament if they had won their final group game against Islamabad United. A loss by five wickets saw Qalanders finish last in the first edition of the. Despite playing only seven games, Umar Akmal was the highest run scorer of the tournament and won the 'Best Batsman' award for his 335 runs with four fifties. During the finals, Qalandars were given the "Spirit of The Game" award for showing the best sportsmanship throughout the tournament and "Fair play award".

2017 season

Lahore Qalandars icon player in first season of the PSL Chris Gayle was traded for Sohail Tanvir of the Karachi Kings during the off-season trade window.^[Sohaib Maqsood was also traded for Aamer Yamin of Peshawar Zalmi. In September 2016, the team also signed New Zealand's former captain Brendon McCullum as their new captain during the off-season.

During the 2017 PSL players draft, Lahore picked a number of new players, including bowlers Yasir Shah and Sunil Narine. The team retained players such as Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali and Dwayne Bravo. Later Dwayne Bravo and Anton Devcich were replaced with Jason Roy and James Franklin while Shaun Tait was replaced with Chris Green.

In their opening game of the 2017 season, Lahore Qalandars lost a closely fought match to the Quetta Gladiators. In pursuit of 137, they managed 128 before being bowled out in the penultimate over.^[ The team bounced back in the next match by beating defending champions, Islamabad United. A partnership of 71 runs between Jason Roy and Umar Akmal set up the Qalandar's chase of 159 before a quick cameo of 26(12) by Sunil Narine finished the game. However, in the following game, against Peshawar Zalmi, the Qalandars collapsed to 59 all-out inside 11 overs - the second shortest innings in T20 cricket history.But, Yasir Shah took 4 wickets for 7 runs in the defense to almost take his team to victory before the Zalmis prevailed by 3-wickets.

As the tournament progressed to Sharjah, the Qalandars registered their second win on the trot. That too against arch-rivals, Karachi Kings. The match was hard-fought between the two sides before the Qalandars prevailed by 7 runs in the final over. Fakhar Zaman, who was also adjudged man-of-the-match, set up his team's target of 180 through his quick-fire innings of 56(36). But in the next game, against Quetta Gladiators, the Qalandars were unable to defend a target of 201 despite being in control for most of the match. They allowed 78 runs to be leaked from the last 3.5 overs to end up on the losing side.However, following this loss, the Qalandars managed to win against Islamabad United by 1-wicket in a tense contest that saw them chase 146 runs in 19.3 overs. Umar Akmal anchored his team's innings by scoring 66 off 42 balls before Grant Elliott finished the chase with a six over midwicket.

As the tournament shifted back to Dubai, the Qalandars suffered back to back defeats against Peshawar Zalmi and arch-rivals, Karachi Kings. Against the Zalmis, the team couldn't chase down 167 after a drastic collapse from 38-1 to 43-6 and fell short by 17 runs. Following this, the Qalandars lost a must-win game against the Kings by 5-wickets. After putting up a respectable target of 156 on board, the team leaked 14-runs from the final over - including sixes on the last two balls to end up on the losing side. These two loses meant that the Qalandars finished at the bottom of the table after the league stage and were, in return, knocked out from the play-off proceedings for the second consecutive year.

2018 season

The Qalandars lost the first three games of the season, against Multan Sultans, Quetta Gladiators and, arch-rivals, Karachi Kings respectively - suffering major batting collapses in each. In the match against the Sultans, they went from 132-4 to 136 all-out, thus falling short in their chase of 180 by 43 runs. While against the Gladiators, they could not build on the excellent start they got. They were 60-2 in the fifth over but could only manage 59 runs in the remaining 15 overs to finish at 119-9. In reply, the Gladiator won by 9 wickets. In the match against the Kings, Qalandars were set a hefty target of 160 runs. They got off to a great start and were 68 for 1 in 6 overs before losing several wickets in quick succession during the middle overs to end up 27 runs short.

As the league stage shifted to Sharjah, the team's fortunes did not change and they lost a closely fought match to Islamabad United. In pursuit of a below-par target of 122 runs, the Qalandars were on course for an easy win at 77-2 in the 12th over, before losing wickets in quick succession to end up at 115-9. A penultimate ball six from debutant, Salman Irshad, leveled the scores before the team got all-out the next ball, instigating a Super Over. Batting first in the one-over eliminator, the Qalandars set a target of 16 runs, which the United achieved via a last-ball six. The Qalanders continued with their losing streak in the next game against Peshawar Zalmi. Batting first, the Qalanders once again suffered a batting collapse and went from 56-0 to 100 all-out. In reply, the Zalmis made the target with all 10 wickets intact - the first such instance in PSL's history. This loss effectively ended Lahore's chances for a playoff berth, making them the first team to be eliminated from the second stage of the tournament.

In July 2018, they were one of the six teams invited to play in the first edition of the Abu Dhabi T20 Trophy, scheduled to start in October 2018. On October 6 2018 they won the tournament by beating Titans in the final.Qalanders signed Sohail Akhtar in the 2018 season.

2019 season

Team identity

The Lahore franchise was launched on 12 December 2015 by owner Fawad Rana. The "Q" in the Qalandars was linked to both represent both Qatar and QALCO and Rana added that the name was chosen to highlight the Sufi culture of Lahore – "Qalandar" is a common term used in Pakistan to describe Sufi mystics or saints whose shrines attract millions of devotees and tourists.^[37] The team's logo features a Sufi performing the famous Sufi whirling with three stumps to his right and a cricket ball as the base, and is meant to represent the Sufi culture of the region

The Qalandars' kit colors in first season was red and black Qalandars launched new kits ahead of second season, with the red turning green at a grand musical event. Mobilinkwas the team's first shirt sponsor and the title sponsor. Alkaram, a textile mill situated in Karachi, was announced as another sponsor and the media partner of the team is Geo Tv. Royal Palm is the team's hospitality partner.

The anthem of the team in 2016 season was "Dama Dam Mast" released in two versions; one by Asrar and other by Nabeel Shaukat Ali. The official song for 2017 season "Dama Dam Mast Lahore Qalandars" was sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali. Famous Film star Shaan is team's brand ambassador for 2017 season.

Year	Kit manufacturer	Front branding	Back branding	Chest branding	Sleeve branding
2016	Millat Sports	Jazz	Al-Karam Textiles	Geo News	QALCO, Mobilink
2017		Jazz	Al-Karam Textiles		QALCO, Huawei, Royal Palm
2018		Ecostar	Gree		Bank of Punjab, ZXMCO, Royal Palm
2019		Ecostar	Mughal Steel		QALCO, Lays

Current squad

denotes a player who is currently unavailable for selection.
denotes a player who is unavailable for rest of the season

Lahore Qalandars
No.	Name	Birth date	Bat	Bowl	Contract signed year	Notes
Batsmen
00	Salman Butt	7 October 1984 (age 34)	L	R off spin	2019
17	AB de Villiers	17 February 1984 (age 35)	R	R medium	2019	Overseas; Captain
39	Fakhar Zaman	10 April 1990 (age 28)	L	L orthodox spin	2019
81	Sohail Akhtar	2 March 1986 (age 32)	R	R medium	2018
	Saad Ali	5 October 1993 (age 25)	L	R medium	2019
All-rounders
8	Mohammad Hafeez	17 October 1980 (age 38)	R	R off break	2019
16	Hasan Khan	16 October 1998 (age 20)	R	slow L unorthodox	2019
23	Agha Salman	23 November 1993 (age 25)	R	R off break	2019
26	Carlos Brathwaite	18 July 1988 (age 30)	R	R medium fast	2019	Overseas
27	David Wiese	18 May 1985 (age 33)	R	R medium	2019	Overseas
28	Anton Devcich	28 September 1985 (age 33)	L	Slow L orthodox	2019	Overseas
	Haris Sohail	9 January 1989 (age 30)	L	slow L unorthodox	2019
	Corey Anderson	13 December 1990 (age 28)	L	L medium fast	2019	Overseas
	Mohammad Imran	25 December 1996 (age 22)	R	R medium	2019
Wicket-keepers
1	Brendan Taylor	6 February 1986 (age 33)	R	R off break	2019	Overseas
05	Gauhar Ali	5 May 1989 (age 29)	R	—	2019
	Umair Masood	7 December 1997 (age 21)	R	—	2019
Bowlers
7	Hardus Viljoen	6 March 1989 (age 29)	R	R fast	2019	Overseas
10	Shaheen Afridi	6 April 2000 (age 18)	L	L fast	2019
21	Rahat Ali	12 September 1988 (age 30)	R	L medium fast	2019
25	Sandeep Lamichhane	2 August 2000 (age 18)	R	R leg break	2019	Overseas
86	Yasir Shah	2 May 1986 (age 32)	R	R leg break	2019
150	Haris Rauf	7 November 1995 (age 23)	R	R medium fast	2019
	Aizaz Cheema	5 September 1979 (age 39)	R	R medium fast	2019

^ Ruled out of the tournament due to finger injury, replaced by Salman Butt.

Management and coaching staff

Name	Position
Fawad Rana (QALCO)	Owner
Rana Atif	CEO
Rana Sameen	COO & Manager
Aqib Javed	Head coach/Director
Carl Crowe	Bowling Coach

No.	Player	From	To	Mat	Won	Lost	Tie&W	Tie&L	%
1	Azhar Ali	2016	2016	7	2	5	0	0	28.57
2	Dwayne Bravo	2016	2016	1	0	1	0	0	00.00
3	Brendon McCullum	2017	2018	18	5	11	1	1	33.33
4	Mohammad Hafeez	2019	2019	2	1	1	0	0	50.00
5	AB de Villiers	2019	2019	2	1	1	0	0	50.00

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last updated: 22 February 2019

Result summary

Overall result in PSL

Year	Pld	Won	Loss	Tie&W	Tie&L	SR(%)	Position	Summary
2016	8	2	6	0	0	25.00	5/5	Group Stage
2017	8	3	5	0	0	37.50	5/5	Group Stage
2018	10	3	6	1	1	30.00	6/6	Group Stage
2019	4	2	2	0	0	50.00
Total	30	9	19	1	1	33.33	-	0 titles

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last updated: 22 February 2019

Head-to-head record

Opposition	Span	Mat	Won	Lost	Tie&W	Tie&L	NR	SR%
Islamabad United	2016–present	7	2	4	0	1	0	35.71
Karachi Kings	2016–present	7	2	4	1	0	0	35.71
Multan Sultans	2018–present	3	2	1	0	0	0	66.66
Peshawar Zalmi	2016–present	7	1	6	0	0	0	14.28
Quetta Gladiators	2016–present	6	2	4	0	0	8	33.33

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last updated: 22 February 2019

Statistics

Most runs

Player	From	To	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	HS	50
Umar Akmal	2016	2018	20	20	556	32.70	93	5
Fakhar Zaman	2017	present	18	18	454	25.22	94	2
Cameron Delport	2016	2018	14	13	327	27.25	78	3
Brendon McCullum	2017	2018	18	17	311	20.73	44	0
Mohammad Rizwan	2016	2017	16	12	233	25.88	50*	1

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last updated: 17 March 2018

Most wickets

Player	From	To	Matches	Overs	Wickets	Average	BBI	4w
Sunil Narine	2017	2018	17	66.0	20	20.55	3/28	0
Yasir Shah	2017	present	18	66.0	20	22.20	4/7	1
Sohail Tanvir	2017	2017	8	29.5	10	25.10	2/24	0
Sohail Khan	2018	2018	7	25.4	8	28.25	3/34	0
Zafar Gohar	2016	2016	5	12.2	7	14.57	4/14	1

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last Updated: 17 March 2018

Awards and achievements

2016 Pakistan Super League League

Umar Akmal declared best batsman of the Pakistan Super league 2016 with 335 runs in 7 matches
Lahore Qalandars received tournament's Spirit of Cricket award
Achieved second highest score of the tournament's first edition with 201 runs in 20 overs
Team had Best Run Rate in the tournament

2017 Pakistan Super League League

Achieved second highest score of the tournament's second edition with 200 runs in 20 overs
Participated in Abu Dhabi T20 Trophy 2018 and won trophy by beating Titans (cricket team) in final

Quetta Gladiators
Quetta Gladiators (Urdu/Balochi: کوئٹہ گلیڈی ایٹرز‬; Pashto: د کوټې تورزنان‬‎) is a Pakistani professional Twenty20 cricket franchise that competes in the PSL. The team is nominally based in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, Pakistan. The franchise was established in 2015 as a result of the formation of the PSL by the PCB. Team's Homeground is Bugti Stadium. The team is captained by Pakistani skipper Sarfraz Ahmed and coached by former Pakistani wicket keeper Moin Khan while West Indian legend Viv Richards is team's mentor and batting coach and Azam Khan is team's manager.Abdul Razzaq is team's Assistant coach

The leading run-scorer of the team is their captain Sarfraz Ahmed, while the leading wicket-taker is Mohammad Nawaz.

1Franchise history
- 1.12016 and 2017 seasons : Runners-Up
- 1.22018 season
2Team identity
3Current squad
4Management and coaching staff
5Captains
6Coaches
7Result summary
- 7.1Overall result in PSL
- 7.2Head-to-head record
8Statistics
- 8.1Most runs
- 8.2Most wickets
9See also
10Notes
11References

12External links

Franchise history

In December 2015 the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) unveiled the owners of all five city-based franchises for the inaugural season the Pakistan Super League. The Quetta franchise was sold to the Karachi-based company Omar Associates for US$11 Million.

2016 and 2017 seasons : Runners-Up

Grant Elliott took 11 wickets in six matches

Quetta began their 2016 campaign with comfortable wins over Islamabad United and Karachi Kings before edging past Peshawar Zalmiin a closely fought match. A defeat against Lahore Qalanders^[] was followed by a big win over Islamabad in which New Zealand all-rounder Grant Elliott, who had just joined the team, proved instrumental in the win as he took 3 key wickets to restrict United to 117. The win took the team to the top of the table and was followed by a victory against Karachi which saw the Gladiators confirmed as the first team to make the play-off stage of the 2016 season.

Quetta finished 2nd in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) table behind Peshawar, winning six of their eight matches. In the first qualifier match Quetta defeated Pershawar by one run, with the Gladiators scoring 133 thanks to a score of 53 by Kevin Pietersen and 37 by Kumar Sangakkara. In reply Peshawar scored 132 after taking the match to the last ball. This win qualified Quetta for the final in which they lost to Islamabad by six wickets, posting a total of 174/7 with scores of 64 by Ahmed Shehzad and 55 by Sangakkara.

Ahmed Shehzad finished as the team's leading run scorer with 290 runs, whilst Mohammad Nawaz took with 13 wickets to be the leading wicket-taker for the team.

Rilee Rossouw scored 255 runs becoming the leading run-scorer for the team in 2017.

As for 2017 season, Kumar Sangakkara and Grant Elliott were released by Quetta just a few days before the PSL transfer window came to an end in September 2016. Sangakara was taken by Karachi Kings while Grant Elliot joined the Lahore Qalandars.

Quetta retained 10 players in advance of the 2017 Pakistan Super League players draft and signed eight during the draft. The signings including foreign players Rovman Powell, Carlos Brathwaite, Tymal Mills, and David Willey. However, of these only Tymal Mills will be joining the team as the other players were unavailable. Mahmudullah Riad and Rilee Rossouw joined the team as a replacement for Mohammad Nabi and David Willey while Nathan McCullum and Thisara Perera replaced Rovman Powell and Carlos Brathwaite. A number of reasons have forced the changes, from injury to some players to others not getting no-objection certificates to scheduling clashes with international cricket.

In their opening game of the 2017 season, Quetta Gladiators defended a target of 137 against the Lahore Qalanders. The match was closely fought and went down to the penultimate over where the Gladiators won by 8 runs. Debutant Hasan Khan emerging player of Quetta was adjudged player-of-the-match for his all round performance of 2 important wickets and a quick-fire 16 runs at the end. In the following match, Gladiators beat Karachi Kingsby 7 wickets. After an initial stutter in pursuit of 160, that saw them at 30/3, Riley Roussow and Sarfaraz Ahmed combined in an unbeaten partnership of 130 for the fourth wicket to take the Gladiators home with 5 balls to spare. Rilee Rossouw was adjudged man-of-the-match for his unbeaten, match-winning knock of 76 off 53 balls.

During the second leg of the tournament, in Sharjah, the Gladiators suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of defending champions, Islamabad United. After putting up a target of 149 in their 20-overs, that saw the Gladiators struggling to accelerate their innings, they lost by 5 wickets.^[21] In the following game, against Peshawar Zalmi, the match was abandoned after repeated showers and the two teams shared the points from the bout. Continuing their campaign, the Gladiators successful chased down 201 against the Lahore Qalandars in what many pundits labeled as the match-of-the-season. Kevin Pieterson and Sarfaraz Ahmad were instrumental in the chase through a 101-run partnership. The former who was going through a lean patch in this PSL struck form and hit 88 from 42 balls - including 8 sixes, as the Gladiators plundered 78 runs from the last 3.5 overs to seal the match.

As the tournament shifted back to Dubai, the Gladiators continued their winning streak by beating Karachi Kings by 6-wickets. The team's chase of 155 was commandeered by a 105-run opening partnership between Ahmad Shahzad 54(40) and Asad Shafiq 45(33) - the highest of this edition's PSL.^[26]This win also effectively made the Gladaiotrs the first team to qualify for the play-offs.^[27] Continuing on, the team lost both of their last two matches of the league stage - against Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi respectively. In the former, the Gladiators imploded in the chase of 166 despite a 2nd-wicket partnership of 133 between Kevin Pieterson 69(43) and Ahmad Shahzad 53(43). Requiring, seven runs from the last two overs, the team fell short by 1 run. In the next match, the Gladiators could only manage a below-par score of 128 batting first. However, the team fielded and bowled quite well to have the chasing Zalmis reduce to 52-6 before Shahid Afridi took his team home with 2-wickets to spare.

In the play-off, the Gladiators beat Peshawar Zalmi by 1 run in a thrilling contest. Batting first, the team posted a hefty 201-run target on the board. This was made possible by aggressive batting from Ahmed Shehzad 71(38) and Kevin Pietersen 40(22) which ensured that the Gladiators were going at a run rate of over 12 runs per over during the first half of the innings. In reply, the Zalmis responded in like and were favorites to win the match before a tight final over from Quetta spinner, Muhammad Nawaz, denied them the winning run. As a result of this match, the Gladiators became the first team to qualify for the final.

In the final, the two teams met again, and Gladiators - the runners-up of the inaugural edition of the PSL, lost to Peshawar Zalmi by 58 runs. Batting first, the Zalmis were struggling at one point at 112 for 6 before Darren Sammy scored 33 runs in the last two overs, taking the team's total to a respectable 148. In reply, the Quetta batsmen never got going and lost wickets at regular intervals, ending up with a team score of just 90. The Gladiator's chances in the final were hurt by the fact that the team's two highest run scorers in the season, Kevin Pietersen and Rilee Rossouw, pulled out of the final in Lahore citing security concerns.