Lahore Qalandars v Multan Sultans PSL Tips: Holders on the brink of early exit

• Sultans the favourites

• Rizwan boosted to tempting price

• Pitch could be flatter

Lahore Qalandars v Multan Sultans
Tuesday 27 February, 14.00
TV: Live on Sky743

Lahore Qalandars v Multan Sultans team news

Lahore suffered their fifth consecutive defeat and they are likely to have to win all their remaining games to make the play-offs. Four is an absolute minimum if they can boost their run rate.

Defeat last time came against Zalmi when they conceded a massive 211 and they were never up with the rate in the chase. Shai Hope has arrived but he's hardly going to add impetus in the middle order. Haris Rauf (shoulder) is out for the tournament.

Probable XI: Farhan, Fakhar, van der Dussen, Hope, A Hafeez, Jahandad, Raza, Brathwaite, Afridi, Imran, Zaman

Sultans may reckon they have little to beat in their quest for a second title. They are top of the group with only one defeat so far and put Quetta in their place on Sunday.

Usman Khan has returned to the opening berth and that looks a sound ploy, enabling Mohammad Rizwan to bat through.

Dawid Malan appeared to have been dropped last time out. Aftab Ibrahim and Tayyab Tahir came in for debuts and performed well with ball and bat respectively.

Probable XI: Usman, Rizwan, Hendricks, Tahir, Iftikhar, Khushdil, Willey, Usama, Ibrahim, Abbas, Ali

Lahore Qalandars v Multan Sultans pitch report

Lahore was hosting Zalmi-Islamabad on Monday with suspicions that they have moved games to a fresher surface. If we see another big score there we are likely to pay close attention to the historic toss bias. As it stands the key data is: 22 of the last 32 have been won by the team batting first and 19 first-innings have busted 180 or more. The par line for overs is likely to be around 182.5.

Lahore Qalandars v Multan Sultans match odds

Multan would be well-advised to treat this as a knockout. Putting the holders - and the side that beat them in last year's final - on the brink of elimination would be a major boost to their campaign.

They are 1.738/11 to get the win. It's not a price which immediately says 'rick' because we are wary of the toss bias. If Lahore were to settle at around the 2.255/4 mark they may have the fortitude to flip the odds by the break batting first.

That's not to say Multan won't have a good go at the chase. Waiting for bigger odds is risky but there is rationale because Lahore have an average economy of an eye-watering 9.8. And they are undoubtedly weaker without Rauf.

Lahore have four won four of the last six but Multan beat their rivals by five wickets in the earlier meeting this term.

Lahore Qalandars v Multan Sultans player bets

Rizwan has been boosted to 13/53.60 for top Sultans bat. We are ready to play again with the opener due a success on historic win rates after one win in five. We also keep faith with Fakhar Zaman at 3/14.00 although we're reducing stakes now because he has been so disappointing.

Bigger priced alternatives for Sultans and Lahore respectively are Usman at 5/16.00 (too big for an opener) and Sikandar Raza at 8/19.00.

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