2020 Pakistan Super League (also known as PSL 5 or for sponsorship reasons as HBL PSL 2020) was the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League, a franchise Twenty20cricket league which was established by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in 2015. It started on 20 February 2020.[1] The league was held entirely in Pakistan for the first time.[2]Karachi Kings won their first title after defeating Lahore Qalandars by five wickets in the final.
The playoff stage of the tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] In late March 2020, the PCB were looking at whether to declare the winner of the tournament based on the league standings, or to play the matches at a later date.[4] On 2 July 2020, the PCB announced that they plan to complete the season in November 2020.[5] On 2 September 2020, the PCB confirmed the fixtures for the remaining matches.[6]
Background
In February 2019, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, announced that the fifth season of the tournament will be held entirely in Pakistan.[7][8][9][10] In March 2019, Ehsan Mani, Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board also expressed the desire to host all the matches of this season in Pakistan.[11] On 1 January 2020, PCB announced fixtures for the tournament confirming that the entire tournament will take place in Pakistan.[12][13]
The players draft took place on 6 December,[19] with the first round taking place on 3 November 2019.[20] Ahead of the draft, each team was allowed to retain up to eight players from their previous squad.[21] On 1 December 2019, PCB announced the retention players list with all six teams retaining a total of 45 players from the previous season.[22][23]
The tournament took place entirely in Pakistan.[30] Total 34 matches were played in four venues Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi and Multan.[31][32] The opening ceremony took place in Karachi. The playoffs were scheduled to take place in Lahore in November 2020, after being postponed for 8 months due to COVID-19 pandemic but were later shifted to Karachi.[33][34]
The league was promoted on social media by the hashtag #HBLPSLV and anthem titled #TayyarHain.[36]
Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony was held on 20 February 2020 at National Stadium, Karachi, prior to the first match of the season.[12]
Directed by Shubhra Bhardwaj,[37] he show began with the national anthem, before a group of drummers and trumpeters performed an instrumental version of the official PSL 2020 anthem. Later, the first performance of the night was a Sufi medley featuring singer Sanam Marvi, qawwals Fareed Ayaz and Abu Mohammad, and the band Soch. This was followed by Sajjad Ali, Aima Baig, Abrar-ul-Haq and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan taking the stage one after another to perform their songs. The ceremony concluded with Ali Azmat, Arif Lohar, Haroon and Asim Azhar performing the PSL 2020 anthem Tayyar Hain, accompanied by a fireworks display in the background.[38]
Cancer awareness
The childhood cancer awareness day and the breast cancer awareness day were observed on 22 February and 7 March respectively, with the stadiums themed as gold and pink respectively.[39][40]
The later part of the tournament was affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The matches were reduced from 34 to 33 and the playoffs were replaced by knockouts thus shortening the tournament by 4 days. The final was rescheduled from 22 March to 18 March.[41][42] The matches from 13 March were announced to take place behind closed doors.[43][44]
As many as eighteen players were confirmed to not take part in any future matches after the increased cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan as well as in the rest of the world, and also to avoid being stranded from their home countries due to border closures, as was the case for New Zealanders Colin Munro, Luke Ronchi, and Mitchell McClenaghan.[45][46]
On 17 March 2020, it was announced that the knockout stage is suspended after English cricketer Alex Hales showed symptoms of the virus.[47][34] Hales observed self-isolation on his return to England, whereas PCB released a statement saying that Hales was not the player suspected of coronavirus and instead refused to reveal the identity of the player suspected of having COVID-19.[48]
League stage
Format
The six teams played 10 matches each and got 2 points for every win, none for a loss and 1 point for a no result. The top four team in the group stage were qualified for the play-offs.
Quetta Gladiators were eliminated from the tournament.[57]
Peshawar Zalmi qualified for the semi-finals play-offs.[57][c][6]
Playoffs
On 2 September 2020, PCB announced the venue and dates for the remaining four matches, with Gaddafi Stadium hosting all four; matches will be held on 14 and 15, with the Final scheduled on 17 November.[58][b] However, later the matches were shifted to National Stadium in Karachi due to poor air quality in Lahore.[59]
1 2 3 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the matches were reduced from 34 to 33 and the playoffs were replaced by knockouts thus shortening the tournament. However, On 2 September 2020, PCB announced the schedule of the remaining fixtures, going back to the playoffs format.
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