The race to the playoffs: Who will make it?

KARACHI: The fourth edition of Pakistan Super League is entering its final stage as the Pakistan leg of the tournament kicks off in Karachi today with the match between Lahore Qalandars and defending champions Islamabad United.

With 26 matches already completed in the league, only Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi have secured their places in final four of the tournament. Islamabad United, Lahore Qalandars and Karachi Kings are competing for the remaining two slots.

Multan Sultans have been eliminated from the race.

Islamabad is playing its last game today, and it has eight points on the table. A win against Lahore tonight should be enough for Islamabad to confirm a berth to the final four. But if Lahore wins tonight, then they will have to wait for results of Karachi’s games against Quetta and Peshawar and also Lahore’s game against Multan.

Islamabad’s win, although, won’t eliminate Qalandars from the race as they will have a chance to improve their position by beating Multan comprehensively in last game and hope for Karachi to lose in both of its games.

If Lahore wins both the games, then they will qualify for the playoffs and in such scenario, Islamabad will be on depending on the result of Karachi’s matches. If Karachi manages to win one of its games then it will join Lahore in playoffs and Islamabad will be eliminated from the race.

Multan, which has four points from nine games, are already out of the race but it can be a spoiler for rest of the teams on the points table.