Pakistan T20 League 2023

Match 5: MUL vs PES

Preview

Multan will be up against Peshawar for the fifth match of the ongoing Pakistan T20 League season. Multan Cricket Stadium will host the game on Friday, February 17, 2023. 

The Multan side can win two back-to-back matches after their defeat in the season opener against Lahore. They lost the inaugural game by a narrow margin of 1 run followed by a nine-wicket victory against the Quetta franchise in their second match.

In the first match, when up against Shaheen Afridi’s Lahore franchise in the first mage, Multan bowled first and didn’t get a good start. Fakhar Zaman was ruthless with the bowlers. Nevertheless, the likes of Usama Mir and Ihsanullah restricted Lahore to 175 runs in 20 overs. 

Multan was also loud with the bat as their skipper Mohammad Rizwan played an outstanding knock of 75 runs to anchor the innings. His dismissal caused disruption in the batting order as none of the other batters performed as per expectations. Eventually, Multan ended up losing the match by just 1 run mark.

They overturned their fate in the second fixture by bowling out Quetta for just 110 runs on the board. Ihsanullah did an excellent job with the ball as he picked up a five-wicket haul. Rilee Roussouw played an outstanding knock scoring 72 runs off just 48 deliveries to help Multan get a victory by 9 wickets. 

Peshawar on the other hand got a perfect start to their season. The winners of the 2017 series faced Karachi at their home, National Stadium, and still managed to get win by just 2 runs in a last-ball thriller.

Peshawar opted to bat first in their inaugural match against Karachi but had a poor start. They lost two wickets in the two first overs. Tom Kohler-Cadmore was the saviour for them as the English batter player smashed 92 runs off just 50 deliveries to put up their side to a huge total of 199 runs.

The bowling side also did an excellent job as they picked up four wickets in just 7 overs. Shoaib Malik and Imad Wasim were the only players to rule the pitch in the second innings scoring half-centuries each, which helped the 2020 winners to get back into the game. Still, the day was of Peshawar as they managed a victory by just 2 runs in a nail-biting thriller. 

Match Details

Match: MUL vs PES, 5th Match, Pakistan T20 League, 2023

Date: Friday, February 17, 2023

Time: 6:30 PM

Venue: Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan 

Pitch and Weather Report

The pitch at the Multan Cricket Stadium is known as batting friendly surface and provides a good balance to the batters and bowlers. The ground also offers help to the spinners as the match progresses. Overall it is a challenging pitch for both the batting and the bowling departments.  The wicket is anticipated to be hard and bouncy and which allows the ball to come to the bat nicely. The hot and dry weather can also result in making the pitch a bit slower in the latter half of the match. The par score under these conditions is 190- runs.

The weather forecasted at Multam is good for a cricket match. The highest and lowest temperatures range from 16 to 29 degrees celsius respectively. Dew will start falling after 9 PM which will also affect the game. There is almost no chance of rain and the spectators are expected to enjoy a full game on the matchday. 

MUL vs PES Squads

MUL: Usman Khan, Usama Mir, Shan Masood, Sameen Gul, Rilee Rossouw, Adil Rashid, Mohammad Rizwan (c), David Miller, Joshua Little, Khushdil Shah, Ihsanullah, Akeal Hosein, Tim David, Anwar Ali, Abbas Afridi, Arafat Minhas, Mohammad Sarwar, Kieron Pollard, Mohammad Ilyas, Carlos Brathwaite

PES: Aamer Jamal, Arshad Iqbal, Babar Azam (c), Danish Aziz, Haseebullah Khan, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, James Neesham, Rovman Powell, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Sherfane Rutherford, Saim Ayub, Salman Irshad, Usman Qadir, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Haris, Sufiyan Muqeem, Shakib Al Hasan, Khurram Shahzad

MUL vs PES Probable Playing XIs

MUL: Shan Masood, Mohammad Rizwan (c & wk), Sohaib Maqsood, Johnson Charles, Tim David, Khushdil Shah, Anwar Ali, Abbas Afridi, Imran Tahir, Blessing Muzarabani, Shahnawaz Dahani

PES: Hazratullah Zazai, Kamran Akmal (wk), Haider Ali, Shoaib Malik, Ben Cutting, Sherfane Rutherford, Wahab Riaz (c), Saqib Mahmood, Mohammad Umar, Usman Qadir, Salman Irshad

Match Prediction

Although Peshawar got a comparatively better start to their season, Multan also had a fight till the last ball of the innings in their first game. As the Head-to-Head stats and the stadium are also in the favour of the Multan side. We predict Multan to win this match. 

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