Alex Hales joins United, Jordon to be in action for Zalmi in playoffs
KARACHI (92 News) – England batsman Alex Hales has joined Islamabad United while England fast bowler Chris Jordan also returned to Pakistan this year as he re-joins the Peshawar Zalmi for the exciting playoff stage of Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Hales – who is an integral part of England’s limited-overs sides – will be making a return to United after having played four matches for the team last season. The explosive England batsman is replacing fellow countryman Ian Bell in the United squad.
“I am delighted to be back with Islamabad United for this year’s PSL. I can’t wait to play in front of our passionate fans,” Hales said. “We have seen exciting cricket at PSL this year and Islamabad United has put in some excellent performances. I look forward to joining the squad and I hope that I can help the team lift the trophy once again,” he added.
United owner Ali Naqvi said, “Alex Hales is one of the leading T20 batsmen in the world and I am glad that he will play for Islamabad United in front of Pakistani fans.” “I am confident that he will add great energy to Islamabad United as we look to win the play-off stage games,” he added.🚨🚨🚨 #Halestorm in Pakistan!! @AlexHales1 welcome back to the #ISLU family. Pakistan is ready to welcome you with open arms!! How excited are you to see him play in Karachi?#UnitedWeWin #CricketComesHome #HBLPSL2019 pic.twitter.com/FiPQbZLjef
— Islamabad United (@IsbUnited) March 12, 2019
Chris Jordan
England fast bowler Chris Jordan also re-joins the Peshawar Zalmi squad for the play-off stage. Jordan had to leave the Zalmi squad midway through the season due to national duty where he received the man-of-the-series award during England’s T20I series win over the Windies.Quetta, Peshawar vow to fight till the last ball in PSL qualifiers tomorrow
Quetta Gladiators and one-time champions Peshawar Zalmi will square off in the qualifiers of the Pakistan Super League 2019 at the National Stadium in Karachi on Wednesday with both captains promising to fight till the last ball. The match will start at 7pm PST.
Led by Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, Quetta have finished runners-up in 2016 and 2017, while Peshawar outlasted them in the third vs fourth eliminator in 2018. Interestingly, every time the margin of victory was one-run.
This proves no team is ready to give up until the last-run as the winner will feature in the sell-out March 17 final. The losing side will have another opportunity to qualify for the final when they will meet the winner of Thursday’s Eliminator between Karachi Kings and Islamabad United on Friday.
Sarfaraz promised another cliff-hanger this time as well. “The rivalry is exemplary,” said Sarfaraz. “Every time in the last three years, we had exciting matches which went down to the wire. We will put up another exciting show this time and hope a capacity crowd will have their money’s worth.”
The Quetta-Peshawar rivalry began in 2016 when both the sides shared a match each in the first round, before Gladiators won the war of Qualifier when medium-pacer Aizaz Cheema took two wickets and conceded a single off the last-ball as Peshawar failed to chase down a small target of 134 runs.
Peshawar won one of the league matches in 2017, while the other was rained-off in Sharjah before another qualifier went to Quetta, this time too Peshawar falling short by one-run in pursuit of a 201-run target. On that day, Hassan Ali was run-out when two runs were needed off the last-ball.
