5 Stats from the Pakistan Super League (PSL) you may not know

The fifth season of Pakistan Super League is all set to begin from February 20, 2020. The preeminent feature of this year’s edition is that all of the matches will be played around Pakistan in four different centers – a first in the tournament history. While the metropolitan cities of Lahore and Karachi have already hosted PSL games in the former seasons, the Pakistan Cricket Board has done well to expand the tournament to Rawalpindi and Multan.

Four seasons and a heap of runs and wickets later, there are a number of records that have been made and disturbed during the league but there are a few records that may not be common with every PSL fan and follower some of which have been collated below:

Winning the toss and choosing not to bat first

In the previous four editions of the PSL, captains from Islamabad United have won the toss eighteen (18) times, every time they have chosen to bat second. They are the only team that has not batted first after winning the coin toss. Luck has favoured their decision fourteen times out of the 18 instances which gives them a win record of 77.78 % after choosing to field first.

Kamran Akmal – the PSL Boss

Kamran Akmal is not only the all-time leading run-scorer in the Pakistan Super League but also he is the leading run-scorer against four of the five oppositions he has faced in the tournament.

The batsman with the most hundreds in the tournament hasn’t had an effective stay against the two-season old Multan Sultans as he could only amass 13 runs in 4 innings against them.

Man of the Match award in a losing Cause

Although it is not a documented rule to award the ‘Man of the Match’ award to a player from the winning team, organizers are usually more inclined to choose the best player among the winners.

There are three instances in the PSL where the Man of the Match Award was awarded to the player from the losing side. Yasir Shah was the first to get the MOTM award for his effort in a low-scoring encounter against Peshawar Zalmi in 2017 followed by Dwayne Smith and Umar Gul in 2018 edition.

Finishing off in style

A boundary or a six has been the winning shot in as many as 50 run-chases in the PSL but there are three instances where the batsmen have hit sixes off consecutive deliveries to secure the win.

Lahore Qalandars’ Ehsan Adil was the first to suffer this fate when in the inaugural edition, Sharjeel Khan sent him over the boundary ropes two times off as many balls to win the game for Islamabad United. Kieron Pollard off Aamer Yamin (Lahore Qalandars) in 2018 and ‘Boom Boom’ Shahid Afridi in 2019 off Waqas Maqsood (Islamabad United) were the others to have enumerated this feat.

Qalandars on top in the Powerplays

Lahore Qalandars may not be the top team at the points table but they surely know how to benefit most of the power-play overs. The average score for Qalandars at the end of PP overs is 46.92– most for any team in the PSL and marginally above Quetta Gladiators who trail behind with an average score of 46.12. Karachi Kings make the worst use of the PP overs as they average just 41.10.