Live Cricket Score, PSL 2017, Final: Peshawar Zalmi vs Quetta Gladiators: Peshawar Zalmi crowned PSL 2 Champs

The final of this second season of PSL will be played between Peshawar & Quetta at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore amidst security arrangements usually reserved for the heads of state.

Hello, good evening and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket coverage of the final of Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2017, to be played between Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators. This is Chinmay Jawalekar bringing you the live cricket scores and updates of what promises to be a thrilling contest for the title. The final of this second season of PSL will be played at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore amidst security arrangements usually reserved for the heads of state. The overseas players of Quetta franchise have already backed out from this game, citing security fears. This has taken some sheen off the summit clash. Also, though the Peshawar owner Javed Afridi has confirmed all five of his overseas players will travel to Lahore for the final, a cloud of uncertainty still remains.

Coming to cricket, both these sides have done enough to make it to the Lahore final. While Peshawar Zalmi finished the league stage as the table toppers, Quetta Gladiators were not far behind. As a matter of fact, only a fraction of points separated them on the points table. Even in the three games these two sides met during the second edition of PSL, the honours were shared with both sides winning a game each and one bearing no result. The important match, however, was won by Quetta, who beat Peshawar by an agonising margin of 1 run to directly qualify for the final in the first qualifying final.

Peshawar, who luckily had the luxury of two attempts to make it to the final, did not squander the chance and beat Karachi Kings in a clinical fashion by 24 runs to set up the summit clash with Sarfraz Ahmed and his men.

Now when these two teams meet each other in front of the home crowd in the bustling Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday, Peshawar will have that slight advantage with their skipper Darren Sammy and other overseas players turning out for them. Quetta will miss the services of Kevin Pietersen, Rilee Rossouw and Tymal Mills the most. All three have been impact players for them, and it will be hard to find their replacements for the most important game. Peshawar will miss the mercurial Shahid Afridi, who has been ruled out due to an injury. But they have enough gas in their tank to topple Quetta even without him.

The final, being played under the shadow of policemen carrying AK-47s, snipers being stationed in and around the stadium, extensive security arrangements in place and the terror threat looming large, is unlikely to change any perception regarding Pakistan being a safe venue for international cricket. The final, however, will bring joy to faces of thousands present in the ground on Sunday and a million others in the terror-torn country, who will finally get a piece of what is truly their own.

Squads:

Peshawar Zalmi: Kamran Akmal (wk), Marlon Samuels, Mohammad Hafeez, Sohaib Maqsood, Darren Sammy (c), Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Asghar, Andre Fletcher, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imran Khan jnr, Chris Jordan, Junaid Khan, Khushdil Shah, Samit Patel, Dawid Malan.

Quetta Gladiators: Asad Shafiq, Ahmed Shehzad, Kevin Pietersen*, Rilee Rossouw*, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk, c), Thisara Perera, Mohammad Nawaz, Anwar Ali, Hasan Khan, Umar Gul, Bismillah Khan, Nathan McCullum*, Luke Wright*, Mir Hamza, Noor Wali, Saad Nasim, Umar Amin, Zulfiqar Babar, Tymal Mills*.

* Indicates the players who have withdrawn from participating in the Lahore Final

Match Timings: (20:00 local time | 15:00 GMT | 20:30 IST)

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