Lahore Qalandars in 2017

The Lahore Qalandars is a franchise cricket team that represents Lahore 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 Brendon McCullum, and they won three matches from their eight matches in the PSL 2017. They stand on fifth position and as a result they were eliminated in group stage.

Lahore Qalandars

2017 season
Coach	Paddy Upton
Captain	Brendon McCullum
Ground(s)	Gadaffi Stadium
PSL 2017	5th (eliminated)
Most runs	Fakhar Zaman (177)
Most wickets	Sunil Narine (10)
← 2016

Squad

Lahore Qalandars icon player in the first season of the PSL Chris Gayle was traded for Sohail Tanvir of the Karachi Kings don the off-season trade window.[1] Sohaib Maqsood was also traded for Aamer Yamin of Peshawar Zalmi.[2] In September 2016, the team also signed New Zealand's former captain Brendon McCullum as their new captain during the off-season.[3]

During the 2017 PSL players draft, Lahore picked a number of new players, including bowlers Yasir Shah and Sunil Narine. The team retained players such as Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali and Dwayne Bravo. Later Dwayne Bravo and Anton Devcich were replaced with Jason Roy and James Franklin while Shaun Tait was replaced with Chris Green. [4]

Name	Nat.	Batting Style	Bowling Style	Joined	Notes
Saif Badar		Right-hand	Legbreak	2017
Azhar Ali		Right-hand	Legbreak	2016
Brendon McCullum		Right-hand	Right-arm Medium	2017	Overseas/Captain/Batting Mentor
Umar Akmal		Right-hand	Right-arm off-spin	2016
Jason Roy		Right-hand	Right-arm Medium	2017	Overseas
Cameron Delport		Left hand	Right-arm Medium	2016	Overseas
Fakhar Zaman		Left-hand	Left-arm Orthodox spin	2017
All-rounders
Bilawal Bhatti		Right-hand	Right-arm Fast	2017
Usman Qadir		Left-hand	Leg-break	2017
James Franklin		Left-hand	Left-arm Medium-fast	2017	Overseas
Sohail Tanvir		Left-Hand	Left-arm Medium-fast	2017
Aamer Yamin		Right-Hand	Right-arm Medium-fast	2017
Grant Elliott		Right-hand	Right-arm Fast Medium	2017	Overseas
Wicket-keepers
Mohammad Rizwan		Right-hand	syie	2016
Bowlers
Ghulam Mudassar		Right-hand	Left-arm Fast-Medium	2017
Chris Green		Right-hand	Right-arm off-break	2017	Overseas
Sunil Narine		Left-hand	Right-arm off-spin	2017	Overseas
Yasir Shah		Right-hand	Leg-spin	2017
Zafar Gohar		Left-hand	Slow Left-arm Orthodox	2016
Mohammad Irfan		Right-hand	Right-arm Fast	2017

Pakistan Super League

In their opening game of the 2017 season, Lahore Qalandars lost a closely fought match to the Quetta Gladiators. In pursuit of 137, they managed 128 before being bowled out in the penultimate over.[5] The team bounced back in the next match by beating defending champions, Islamabad United. A partnership of 71 runs between Jason Roy and Umar Akmal set up the Qalandar's chase of 159 before a quick cameo of 26(12) by Sunil Narine finished the game.[6] However, in the following game, against Peshawar Zalmi, the Qalandars collapsed to 59 all-out inside 11 overs – the second shortest innings in T20 cricket history.[7] But, Yasir Shah took 4 wickets for 7 runs in the defense to almost take his team to victory before the Zalmis prevailed by 3-wickets.[8]

As the tournament progressed to Sharjah, the Qalandars registered their second win on the trot. That too against arch-rivals, Karachi Kings. The match was hard-fought between the two sides before the Qalandars prevailed by 7 runs in the final over. Fakhar Zaman, who was also adjudged man-of-the-match, set up his team's target of 180 through his quick-fire innings of 56(36).[9] But in the next game, against Quetta Gladiators, the Qalandars were unable to defend a target of 201 despite being in control for most of the match. They allowed 78 runs to be leaked from the last 3.5 overs to end up on the losing side.[10] However, following this loss, the Qalandars won against Islamabad United by 1-wicket in a tense contest that saw them chase 146 runs in 19.3 overs. Umar Akmal anchored his team's innings by scoring 66 off 42 balls before Grant Elliott finished the chase with a six over midwicket.[11]

As the tournament shifted back to Dubai, the Qalandars suffered back to back defeats against Peshawar Zalmi and arch-rivals, Karachi Kings. Against the Zalmis, the team couldn't chase down 167 after a drastic collapse from 38–1 to 43–6 and fell short by 17 runs.[12] Following this, the Qalandars lost a must-win game against the Kings by 5-wickets. After putting up a respectable target of 156 on board, the team leaked 14-runs from the final over – including sixes on the last two balls to end up on the losing side.[13] These two loses meant that the Qalandars finished at the bottom of the table after the league stage and were, in return, knocked out from the play-off proceedings for the second consecutive year.[14]

Season standings

Lahore Qalandars finished fifth 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

• Source: CricInfo[15]
• The top 4 teams qualified for the playoffs

See also

• Peshawar Zalmi in 2017
• Quetta Gladiators in 2017
• Karachi Kings in 2017
• Islamabad United in 2017

References

1. http://tribune.com.pk/story/1184862/psl-2017-sangakkara-released-quetta-gayle-traded-lahore/Express Tribune, 2016-09-20. Retrieved 2016-09-20.
2. http://socialsports360.com/trading-in-psl/Social Sports 360, 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
3. http://dailytimes.com.pk/sports/20-Sep-16/qalandars-sign-mccullum-as-new-captain/Daily times, 2016-09-20. Retrieved 2016-09-20.
4. "Lahore Qalandars 2017 squad" (The News). Retrieved 20 October 2016.
5. "Rossouw, spinners help Quetta clinch thriller". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
6. "Elliott, Roy star in Lahore's first win". ESPN Cricinfo.
7. "Shortest completed innings (by balls)". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
8. "Peshawar hobble past Lahore in low-scoring thriller". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
9. "Lahore edge past Karachi despite Sangakarra fireworks". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
10. "Gladiators overpower Qalandars in high-scoring PSL encounter". Dawn. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
11. "Elliott six seals nerve-wracking one-wicket win for Lahore". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
12. "Peshawar triumph after spectacular Lahore collapse". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
13. "Pollard last-ball six keeps Karachi alive". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
14. "PSL 2017 Points Table". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
15. "PSL 2017 Points table" (ESPN). Retrieved 19 February 2017.