2019 Pakistan Super League

Pakistan Super League 2019

Dates	14 February – 17 March 2019
Administrator(s)	Pakistan Cricket Board
Cricket format	Twenty20
Tournament format(s)	Double round robin and playoffs
Host(s)	United Arab Emirates  Pakistan
Champions	Quetta Gladiators (1st title)
Runners-up	Peshawar Zalmi
Participants	6
Matches	34
Attendance	495,817 (14,583 per match)
Player of the series	Shane Watson (QG) (430 runs)
Most runs	Shane Watson (QG) (430)
Most wickets	Hasan Ali (PZ) (25)
Official website	psl-t20.com
← 2018 2020 →

2019 Pakistan Super League (also known as PSL 4 or for sponsorship reasons HBL PSL 2019) was the fourth season of the Pakistan Super League, a franchise Twenty20 cricket league which was established by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in 2015. The tournament took place from 14 February to 17 March 2019.^[1][2]

In the championship game, Quetta Gladiators defeated Peshawar Zalmi by eight wickets in Karachi to win the title for the first time. Mohammad Hasnain of Quetta was named the Man of the Match of the Final. Shane Watson, also of Quetta, was awarded the Player of the Tournament award and the leading run scorer award with a total of 435 runs in the tournament. Hasan Ali of Peshawar was awarded the leading wicket taker award with a total of 25 wickets.

Background[]

On 10 November 2018, PCB terminated franchise agreements with the owner of Multan Sultans, Schön Properties.^[3] Ali Khan Tareen is the new owner of the team.^[4][5] On 14 November, PCB announced that HBL Pakistan has renewed its partnership with PSL for 3 more years until 2021.^[6] On 21 December, Blitz Advertising won the broadcasting rights for 3 years on a bid of US$36 million, which is 358% greater amount than before.^[7][8][9]

Broadcasting partners[]

The broadcasting rights of the 4th season of PSL were given to various Sports channels for covering the event in different countries. The broadcasting rights of the season in Pakistan were given to leading sports channels, PTV Sports & Geo Super, whereas in United States and Canada the rights were given to Willow TV. Hum TV was given the rights to broadcast the series in UK & Europe. The OTT rights for Middle-Eastern and North Africa Countries were given to Cricketgateway.^[10][11]

In case of India the broadcasting rights were given to DSports which partnered with Daily Fantasy Site, , to co-present PSL in India.^[12][13]

Teams and squads[]

Each franchise retained up to 10 players^[14] during the trade and retention window that started on 29 September.^[15] A squad of 16 players, with 4 supplementary players,^[16][17] was then completed in players draft held at Islamabad on 20 November.^[18] On 16 December 2018, PSL announced that each team will have additional budget to select 21-member squad.^[19] The replacement draft was held on 24 January in Lahore.^[20]

Islamabad United	Karachi Kings	Lahore Qalandars	Multan Sultans	Peshawar Zalmi	Quetta Gladiators
Mohammad Sami (c) Shadab Khan (vc) Faheem Ashraf Asif Ali Luke Ronchi Rumman Raees Hussain Talat Sahibzada Farhan Ian Bell Samit Patel Waqas Maqsood Zafar Gohar Wayne Parnell Phil Salt Chadwick Walton Cameron Delport Muhammad Musa Nasir Nawaz Zahir Khan Amad Butt Rizwan Hussain Alex Hales	Imad Wasim (c) Colin Munro Mohammad Amir Babar Azam Colin Ingram Usman Shinwari Mohammad Rizwan Ravi Bopara Sikandar Raza Awais Zia Usama Mir Aaron Summers Sohail Khan Iftikhar Ahmed Ali Imran Abrar Ahmed Aamer Yamin Ben Dunk Liam Livingstone Jaahid Ali Umer Khan	Fakhar Zaman (c) AB de Villiers Mohammad Hafeez Carlos Brathwaite Corey Anderson Haris Sohail Hasan Khan Rahat Ali Yasir Shah Shaheen Afridi Anton Devcich Agha Salman Sohail Akhtar Sandeep Lamichhane Mohammad Imran Umair Masood Brendan Taylor Gauhar Ali Aizaz Cheema Haris Rauf Hardus Viljoen David Wiese Saad Ali Salman Butt Ryan ten Doeschate Riki Wessels Asela Gunaratne	Shoaib Malik (c) Steve Smith Shahid Afridi Joe Denly Junaid Khan Mohammad Irfan Shan Masood Mohammad Abbas Mohammad Irfan Umar Siddiq Mohammad Junaid Qais Ahmad Nicholas Pooran Chris Green Laurie Evans Nauman Ali Mohammad Ilyas Dan Christian Tom Moores Ali Shafiq Shakeel Ansar Andre Russell James Vince Hammad Azam Johnson Charles	Darren Sammy (c) Wahab Riaz Hasan Ali Kamran Akmal Kieron Pollard Liam Dawson Umaid Asif Khalid Usman Sameen Gul Misbah-ul-Haq Dawid Malan Umar Amin Wayne Madsen Sohaib Maqsood Jamal Anwar Nabi Gul Chris Jordan Waqar Salamkheil Ibtisam Sheikh Samiullah Andre Fletcher Imam-ul-Haq Lendl Simmons Tymal Mills	Sarfraz Ahmed (c) Shane Watson Sunil Narine Dwayne Bravo Umar Akmal Mohammad Nawaz Rilee Rossouw Sohail Tanvir Anwar Ali Saud Shakeel Fawad Ahmed Mohammad Asghar Danish Aziz Ahsan Ali Ghulam Mudassar Naseem Shah Harry Gurney Ahmed Shehzad Azam Khan Jalat Khan Dwayne Smith Mohammad Irfan Mohammad Hasnain Max Waller

Venues[]

On 12 June 2018, the franchises and PCB officials in a meeting decided against the idea of having a full PSL fourth edition in Pakistan.^[21] The new PCB chairman Ehsan Mani announced on 15 September that tournament was to start from 14 February 2019 in UAE, and the last eight games were to be held in Pakistan along with the final that will be played on 17 March in Karachi.^[2]

For the first time, four PSL matches were played in Abu Dhabi.^[22]

Originally, three matches were scheduled to be played in Lahore but due to logistical and operational challenges posed by the delayed opening of Lahore airspace for commercial flights following military tensions between Pakistan and India, the matches were shifted to Karachi.^[23] Mani said that PCB had made a critical decision and the "headquarters of Pakistan cricket will be unable to host" 2019 PSL matches.^[24]

United Arab Emirates			Pakistan
Dubai	Sharjah	Abu Dhabi	Lahore	Karachi
Dubai International Cricket Stadium	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium	Gaddafi Stadium	National Stadium
Capacity: 25,000	Capacity: 17,000[25]	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 27,000	Capacity: 32,000[26]
Dubai Sharjah Abu Dhabi			Lahore Karachi

Match officials[]

Umpires[]

Referees[]

• Mohammad Anees
• Muhammad Javed
• Roshan Mahanama

Promotion in media[]

The league was promoted on social media by the hashtag #HBLPSL due to its title sponsor, and by its official anthem #KhelDeewanoKa.

Ceremonies[]

Opening ceremony[]

The opening ceremony was held on 14 February at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, prior to the first match of the season.^[30][31] It was started by the national anthems of UAE "Ishy Bilady", and of Pakistan "Qaumi Taranah" as usual. It then featured a marching band, which performed Europe's "The Final Countdown". Then, British singer Marcia Barrett, from German band Boney M., performed her band's song "Daddy Cool". Aima Baig and Shuja Haider performed on their rendition of Nazia Hassan and Zohaib Hassan's "Disco Deewane". Then members of Junoon band performed on their "Yaar Bina", "Heerey" and "Jazba-e-Junoon". The last performance included title anthem of the league's fourth season by Fawad Khan featuring Young Desi. Then, melody of Ali Zafar's previous anthems for PSL was played, followed by fireworks.^{[32][33][34][35]}

A list of artists to perform at the ceremony was officially released on 18 January, according to which American rapper Pitbull was also confirmed to perform,^[36] however, later he withdrew due to a technical fault in his plane's engine.^[37]

Closing ceremony[]

The closing ceremony of the league, hosted by Fakhar-e-Alam, was held at National Stadium, Karachi, on 17 March prior to the league's final match.^[38][39][40] One minute silence was observed in respect of the martyrs of Christchurch mosque shootings.^[26]

Then Abrar-ul-Haq performed his song "Nach Majajan". Aima Baig and Shuja Haider once again paid tribute to Nazia Hassan by performing "Dosti" and "Disco Deewane".^[41][42] Fawad Khan featuring Young Desi performed the title anthem of the league's fourth season. Sahir Ali Bagga then performed a patriotic song "Har Dil Ki Awaz".^[26][43] Last performance was by Junoon, who sang "Zamaane Ke Andaaz", "Khudi Ko Kar Buland", "Sayonee" and "Dil Dil Pakistan".^[44]

The Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Spanish World Cup winning footballer Carles Puyol and the cast of the upcoming Pakistani film The Legend of Maula Jatt also appeared at the ceremony.^[45] Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and Governor Sindh Imran Ismail also attended the final match.^[44]

Cancer awareness[]

International Child Hood Cancer Awareness Day was observed on 15 February with golden ribbon as a theme,^[46] while Breast Cancer Awareness Day was observed on 10 March with pink ribbon as a theme.^[47] The stadiums were also themed respectively.^[48]

Commentators[]

^[49][50][51]

Experts[]

• Brad Hogg
• Aamer Sohail
• Shaun Tait
• Azhar Ali

Presenters[]

• Zainab Abbas
• Fakhar-e-Alam
• Erin Holland

League stage[]

Format[]

The six teams all played 10 matches each and got 2 points for every win, none for a loss and 1 point for a no result. The top four teams in the group stage qualified for the play-offs.

Points table[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	L	T	NR	Pts	NRR
1	Peshawar Zalmi (R)	10	7	3	0	0	14	0.828
2	Quetta Gladiators (C)	10	7	3	0	0	14	0.376
3	Islamabad United (3rd)	10	5	5	0	0	10	0.127
4	Karachi Kings (4th)	10	5	5	0	0	10	−0.673
5	Multan Sultans	10	3	7	0	0	6	0.173
6	Lahore Qalandars	10	3	7	0	0	6	−0.837

• The top 4 teams qualified for the playoffs
•   Advanced to Qualifier
•   Advanced to Eliminator 1

Notes:

• C = Champions;
• R = Runner-up;
• (x) = Position at the end of the tournament;

Summary[]

League progression[]

Fixtures[]

The complete fixture schedule was released on 13 December 2018.^[52][a] On 3 March 2019, the updated schedule for Pakistan round was released.^[53][24]

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• Peshawar Zalmi's score of 20 at the end of the powerplay equalled the record low total ^[60]

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• Multan Sultans score of 78 in the powerplay equalled the PSL record ^[64]

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Playoffs[]

^[a]

Preliminary

Final

17 March — Karachi

13 March — Karachi

1

Peshawar Zalmi

176/7 (20 overs)

2

Quetta Gladiators

186/6 (20 overs)

2

Quetta Gladiators

139/2 (17.5 overs)

Quetta Gladiators won by 10 runs

1

Peshawar Zalmi

138/8 (20 overs)

Quetta Gladiators won by 8 wickets

15 March — Karachi

1

Peshawar Zalmi

214/5 (20 overs)

3

Islamabad United

166/9 (20 overs)

Peshawar Zalmi won by 48 runs

14 March — Karachi

3

Islamabad United

164/6 (19.3 overs)

4

Karachi Kings

161/9 (20 overs)

Islamabad United won by 4 wickets

Qualifier[]

Eliminators[]

Eliminator 1[]

Eliminator 2[]

Final[]

Awards and statistics[]

Most runs[]

Player	Team	Mat	Inns	Runs	Ave	SR	HS	100	50	4s	6s
Shane Watson	Quetta Gladiators	12	12	430	43.00	143.81	91*	0	4	43	22
Kamran Akmal	Peshawar Zalmi	13	13	357	27.46	137.83	86	0	3	42	18
Cameron Delport	Islamabad United	12	12	355	32.27	133.96	117*	1	1	35	13
Colin Ingram	Karachi Kings	11	11	344	34.40	164.59	127*	1	1	34	16
Imam-ul-Haq	Peshawar Zalmi	12	12	341	28.41	130.15	59	0	4	34	8
Source: ESPNcricinfo.com, Last updated: 17 March 2019 The Player with most runs will be awarded with a Green cap and Hanif Mohammad Award at the end of the season.[71]

•   Shane Watson of Quetta Gladiators received the Green Cap.

Most wickets[]

Player	Team	Mat	Inns	Wkts	Ave	Econ	BBI	SR	4WI	5WI
Hasan Ali	Peshawar Zalmi	13	13	25	13.64	6.77	4/15	12.0	3	0
Faheem Ashraf	Islamabad United	12	12	21	15.33	7.29	6/19	12.6	1	1
Wahab Riaz	Peshawar Zalmi	13	13	17	19.88	6.78	4/10	17.5	0	0
Umer Khan	Karachi Kings	11	10	15	16.13	7.11	3/22	13.6	0	0
Sohail Tanvir	Quetta Gladiators	12	12	15	21.73	6.93	4/21	18.8	1	0
Source: ESPNcricinfo.com, Last updated : 17 March 2019 The Player with most wickets will be awarded with Maroon cap and Fazal Mahmood Award at the end of the season.

•   Hasan Ali of Peshawar Zalmi received the Maroon Cap.

See also[]

• Islamabad United in 2019
• Karachi Kings in 2019
• Lahore Qalandars in 2019
• Multan Sultans in 2019
• Peshawar Zalmi in 2019
• Quetta Gladiators in 2019

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Official partner