PSL 2022: Peshawar Zalmi rocked by COVID-19, star players set to miss playoffs

All-rounder Ben Cutting and leg-spinner Usman Qadir will miss out on the Eliminator against Islamabad United after testing positive for COVID-19.  The players will have to serve seven days of isolation thus will miss the remaining games. However, if the team qualifies for the final, the players can return to the playing XI. Alongside the players, batting consultant Hashim Amla has also tested positive for virus.

The 2017 winners finished third on the points table after beating Lahore Qalandars in the Super Over on February 21. Cutting has played nine games in the tournament and scored 197 runs, averaging 28.14 and a strike rate of 164.16. He once scored 27 runs off Sohail Tanvir’s over in the tournament. His reaction after the over created a controversy.

On the other hand, Qadir took eight wickets in seven games, averaging 29.12 with the best figures of 25/3. The team is coming off four wins on the trot and will look to beat the two-time winners. On the other hand, the Shadab Khan-led side would consider themselves lucky as they qualified for the playoffs by a superior Net Run-Rate.

Quetta Gladiators and Islamabad United finished with four win and six losses in 10 games. Quetta’s NRR was -0.708 after their last league game. There NRR was badly dented against Multan Sultans as they lost the game by a huge margin of 117 runs. On the other hand, United was benefited from few big wins against Karachi, Peshawar, and Quetta.

Even in the losing, they always made sure that they lost by close margins, apart from one game against Lahore Qalandars. There NRR was -0.069 after the league. Notably, the Sarfaraz Ahmed-led side’s NRR was so bad that they needed Multan to chase down the target of 106 runs in just 3.5 overs for qualify for the playoffs.