Karachi Kings in 2017

The Karachi Kings is a franchise cricket team that represents Karachi in the Pakistan Super League. They are one of the five teams that had a competition in the 2017 Pakistan Super League. The team was captained by Kumar Sangakkara, and they stand on third position after winning four matches from their eight matches in the PSL 2017.[1]

Karachi Kings

2017 season
Coach	Mickey Arthur
Captain	Kumar Sangakkara
PSL 2017	3rd
Most runs	Babar Azam (291)
Most wickets	Sohail Khan (16)
← 2016

Squad

Kumar Sangakkara and Babar Azam joined Karachi for the second season of the PSL whilst Azhar Mehmood signed as a coach. Sohail Tanvir was traded for Chris Gayle of Lahore Qalandars during the off-season trade window.[2] During the 2017 PSL players draft Karachi retained Shoaib Malik, Imad Wasim, Ravi Bopara, Mohammad Amir, Sohail Khan, Saifullah Bangash, and Shahzaib Hasan. The team added nine players to the squad, including Kieron Pollard, Mahela Jayawardena and Ryan McLaren.[3]

Name	Nat.	Batting style	Bowling style	Joined	Notes
Batsmen
Babar Azam		Right-hand	Right-arm off spin	2017
Chris Gayle		Left-hand	Right-Arm Offbreak	2017	Overseas
Khurram Manzoor		Right-hand	Right-arm Offbreak	2017
Mahela Jayawardene		Right-hand	Right-arm Medium	2017	Overseas
Shahzaib Hasan		Right-hand	Right-arm Offbreak	2016
Ammad Alam		ra	2017
All-rounders
Hasan Mohsin		Right-hand	Right-arm Medium	2017
Imad Wasim		Left-Hand	Slow Left-arm Orthodox	2016
Ryan McLaren		Left-hand	Right-arm Medium fast	2017	Overseas
Kashif Bhatti		Right-hand	Slow Left-arm Orthodox	2017
Ravi Bopara		Right-hand	Right Arm Medium Fast	2016	Overseas
Shoaib Malik		Right-hand	Right-arm off spin	2016
Kieron Pollard		Right-hand	Right-arm medium fast	2017	Overseas
Wicket-keepers
Kumar Sangakkara		Left-hand	—ri	2017	Overseas, Captain
Saifullah Bangash		Right-Hand	—	2016
Bowlers
Abrar Ahmed		Left-hand	Right-arm Leg spin	2017
Mohammad Amir		Left-hand	Left-arm Fast	2016
Rahat Ali		Right-hand	Left-arm fast	2018
Sohail Khan		Right-Hand	Right-Arm Fast	2016
Usama Mir		Right-hand	Right-arm Leg spin	2016
Usman Khan		Right-hand	Left-arm medium fast	2017
Abdul Ameer		Left-hand	Left-arm medium fast	2017

Pakistan Super League

In their first game, Karachi Kings lost to Peshawar Zalmi by 7 wickets in one-sided affair that saw them post a target of just 118 in their 20 overs.[4] In the following game, against the Quetta Gladiators, the Kings failed to defend 160 and lost by 7 wickets yet again.[5] Even as the tournament progressed to Sharjah, the Kings continued their losing streak. Facing a loss this time to arch-rivals, Lahore Qalandars. The match was closely fought and a partnership of 101 runs between veterans Kumar Sangakkara and Shoaib Malik almost won it for the Kings. But in the end they fell short of the target of 180 by 7 runs.[6] But in the next game, against defending champions Islamabad United. the team finally managed to put themselves on the points table. The win came through the Duckworth-Lewis method as the Kings were ahead of the par score by 8 runs when returning rain forced to abandon the already 13-over match.[7] In their final game of the Sharjah leg, the Kings continued their winning streak to get past Peshawar Zalmi in a thrilling contest. Setting up a target of 175, the Kings had the Zalmis reduced to 69-6 before Shahid Afridi and Darren Sammy combined in a 70-run partnership that almost won the game for the Zalmis. However, the King's bowling prevailed in the end to give their team a 9-run victory.[8]

As the tournament moved back to Dubai, the Kings couldn't continue their winning streak and lost to table-toppers, Quetta Gladiators, by 6 wickets. Batting first, the Kings set a target of 155 runs, which they were unable to defend despite a 3-wicket-over from pacer Sohail Khan. This loss pushed the Karachi Kings to the bottom of the table once again.[9] However, in the next game, which had become a must-win for both participating teams, the Kings managed to prevail over the Lahore Qalandars in a thrilling last-ball finish. Chasing 156, the team required 10 runs from the last two balls, which Kieron Pollard surpassed with back-to-back sixes to keep his team alive in the tournament.[10] They qualified for Eliminator, where they defeated Islamabad United to advance to Qualifier 2.

Season standings

Karachi Kings finished third in the points table of 2017 Pakistan Super League.

Team	P	W	L	T	NR	Pts	NRR
Peshawar Zalmi	8	4	3	0	1	9	+0.309
Quetta Gladiators	8	4	3	0	1	9	+0.166
Karachi Kings	8	4	4	0	0	8	-0.098
Islamabad United	8	4	4	0	0	8	-0.139
Lahore Qalandars	8	3	5	0	0	6	-0.223

As of 26 February 2017

• Source: CricInfo[11]
• The top 4 teams qualified for the playoffs
•      Advanced to Qualifier 1
•      Advanced to Eliminator

See also

• Peshawar Zalmi in 2017
• Quetta Gladiators in 2017
• Islamabad United in 2017
• Lahore Qalandars in 2017

References

1. Samiuddin, Osman (2 March 2017). "Disjointed Karachi Kings doing the job". Cricinfo. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
2. "Babar, Gayle and Sangakkara joins kings for 2017 season" (Daily Times). Retrieved 21 February 2017.
3. "Karachi Kings 2017 Squad" (The News). Retrieved 21 February 2017.
4. "Morgan 80* powers Peshawar to victory". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
5. "Rossouw, Sarfraz fifties flatten Karachi". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
6. "Lahore edge past Karachi despite Sangakarra fireworks". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
7. "Babar, spinners put Karachi on board". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
8. "Mir repels Afridi heroics to secure win for Karachi". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
9. "Clinical Quetta clinch playoff berth with victory". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
10. "Pollard last-ball six keeps Karachi alive". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
11. "PSL 2017 Points table" (ESPN). Retrieved 19 February 2017.