Quetta Gladiators in 2017

The Quetta Gladiators is a franchise cricket team that represents Quetta in the Pakistan Super League. They were one of the five teams that had a competition in the 2017 Pakistan Super League. The team was captained by Sarfraz Ahmed coached by Moin Khan and mentored by Viv Richards, They finished on second position after winning four matches from their eight matches in the PSL 2017. They finished runners-up for the second time in a row after losing the final against Peshawar Zalmi.

Quetta Gladiators

2017 season
Coach	Moin Khan
Captain	Sarfraz Ahmed
PSL 2017	2nd (runner-up)
Most runs	Rilee Rossouw (255)
Most wickets	Mohammad Nawaz (10)
← 2016 2018 →

Squad

Kumar Sangakkara and Grant Elliott were released by Quetta just a few days before the PSL transfer window came to an end in September 2016.[1] Sangakara was taken by Karachi Kings while Grant Elliot joined the Lahore Qalandars.[2]

Quetta retained 10 players in advance of the 2017 Pakistan Super League players draft and signed eight during the draft. The signings including overseas players Rovman Powell, Tymal Mills, and David Willey. However, of these only Tymal Mills will be joining the team as the other players were unavailable. Mahmudullah Riad and Rilee Rossouw joined the team as a replacement for Mohammad Nabi and David Willey . A number of reasons have forced the changes, from injury to some players to others not getting no-objection certificates to scheduling clashes with international cricket.[3][4]

Name	Nation	Batting Style	Bowling Style	Joined	Notes
Batsmen
Ahmed Shehzad		Right-hand	Right-arm Leg break	2016
Kevin Pietersen		Right-hand	Right-arm Off Break	2016	Foreign/first pick/icon player
Asad Shafiq		Right-hand	Right-arm Off break	2016
Rilee Rossouw		Left-hand	Right-arm Off break	2017	Foreign
Anamul Haque		Right-hand	—	2017	Foreign
All-rounders
Saad Nasim		Right-hand	Right-arm Leg break	2016
Luke Wright		Right-hand	Right Arm Medium Fast	2016	Foreign
Thisara Perera		Left-Hand	Right Arm Fast-Medium	2016	Foreign
Umar Amin		Left-hand	Right-arm medium	2017
Mohammad Nawaz		Right-hand	Slow Left Arm Orthodox	2016
Mahmudullah		Right-hand	Left-arm Off break	2017	Foreign
Elton Chigumbura		Right-hand	Right arm medium-fast	2016	Foreign
Sean Ervine		Left-hand	Right arm Medium	2017	Foreign
Anwar Ali		Right-hand	Right arm Fast medium	2016
Wicket-keeper
Sarfraz Ahmed		Right-hand	—	2018	Captain
Bismillah Khan		Right-hand	—	2016
Morne van Wyk		Right-hand	—	2017	Foreign
Bowlers
Umar Gul		Right-hand	Right-arm Fast	2018
Tymal Mills		Right-hand	Left-arm Fast	2017	Foreign
Nathan McCullum		Right-hand	Right-arm Off break	2016	Foreign
Zulfiqar Babar		Right-hand	Slow Left-arm Orthodox	2016
Mir Hamza		Right-hand	Left-arm Medium Fast	2017
Hasan Khan		Right-hand	Slow left-arm Orthodox	2017
Noor Wali		Right-hand	Right-arm Medium	2017
Aizaz Cheema		Right-hand	Right-arm medium-fast	2016
Rayad Emrit		Right-hand	Right arm fast-medium	2017	Foreign

Pakistan Super League

In their opening game of the 2017 season, Quetta Gladiators managed to defend a target of 137 against the Lahore Qalanders. The match was closely fought and went down to the penultimate over where the Gladiators won by 8 runs. Debutant Hasan Khan emerging player of Quetta was adjudged player-of-the-match for his all round performance of 2 important wickets and a quick-fire 16 runs at the end.[5] In the following match, Gladiators beat Karachi Kings by 7 wickets. After an initial stutter in pursuit of 160, that saw them at 30/3, Riley Roussow and Sarfaraz Ahmed combined in an unbeaten partnership of 130 for the fourth wicket to take the Gladiators home with 5 balls to spare. Rilee Rossouw was adjudged man-of-the-match for his unbeaten, match-winning knock of 76 off 53 balls.[6]

During the second leg of the tournament, in Sharjah, the Gladiators suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of defending champions, Islamabad United. After putting up a target of 149 in their 20-overs, that saw the Gladiators struggling to accelerate their innings, they lost by 5 wickets.[7] In the following game, against Peshawar Zalmi, the match was abandoned after repeated showers and the two teams shared the points from the bout.[8] Continuing their campaign, the Gladiators successful chased down 201 against the Lahore Qalandars in what many pundits labeled as the match-of-the-season.[9][10] Kevin Pieterson and Sarfaraz Ahmad were instrumental in the chase through a 101-run partnership. The former who was going through a lean patch in this PSL struck form and hit 88 from 42 balls - including 8 sixes, as the Gladiators plundered 78 runs from the last 3.5 overs to seal the match.[11]

As the tournament shifted back to Dubai, the Gladiators continued their winning streak by beating Karachi Kings by 6-wickets. The team's chase of 155 was commandeered by a 105-run opening partnership between Ahmad Shahzad 54(40) and Asad Shafiq 45(33) - the highest of this edition's PSL.[12] This win also effectively made the Gladaiotrs the first team to qualify for the play-offs.[13] Continuing on, the team lost both of their last two matches of the league stage - against Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi respectively. In the former, the Gladiators imploded in the chase of 166 despite a 2nd-wicket partnership of 133 between Kevin Pieterson 69(43) and Ahmad Shahzad 53(43). Requiring, seven runs from the last two overs, the team fell short by 1 run.[14] In the next match, the Gladiators could only manage a below-par score of 128 batting first. However, the team fielded and bowled quite well to have the chasing Zalmis reduce to 52-6 before Shahid Afridi took his team home with 2-wickets to spare.[15] The team thus qualified for Qualifier 1, and defeated Peshawar Zalmi by 1 run in a close encounter to qualify for the final directly. They put a score of 200/7 by the efforts of 71 runs innings of Ahmed Shehzad.

Season standings

Quetta Gladiators finished second 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

[16]

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

See also

• Peshawar Zalmi in 2017
• Karachi Kings in 2017
• Islamabad United in 2017
• Lahore Qalandars 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. "Lahore Qalandars all set to dazzle in PSL 2017". Daily Times. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
3. "Dwayne Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite to miss .Carlos braithwaite was asked to sign but he refused due to his schedule. .PSL". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
4. "The Twenty20 extravaganza begins". The News. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
5. "Rossouw, spinners help Quetta clinch thriller". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
6. "Rossouw, Sarfraz fifties flatten Karachi". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
7. "Blistering Billings gives Islamabad much-needed boost". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
8. "Rain ruins table-toppers' clash after Tamim fireworks". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
9. "Pietersen's blitz blindsides Lahore". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
10. "History repeats itself as Quetta chase 201 against Lahore". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
11. "Gladiators overpower Qalandars in high-scoring PSL encounter". Dawn. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
12. "List of hundred partnerships in PSL". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
13. "Clinical Quetta clinch playoff berth with victory". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
14. "Islamabad secure playoff spot after late Quetta stumble". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
15. "Vintage Afridi knock puts Peshawar in first place". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
16. "PSL 2017 Points table" (ESPN). Retrieved 19 February 2017.