Quetta Gladiators vs Multan Sultans Tips & Preview – Sultans Seek Summit Spot & Redemption Against The Gladiators

By Nikhil Kalro

11 Mar 2024

Nikhil Kalro 11 Mar 2024

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Sultans vs Gladiators in top spot clash in the PSL.
Playoff spot guaranteed after sensational game by Gladiators.
Sultans look to bounce back from defeat to Islamabad United.

Quetta Gladiator's Jason Roy is clean bowled during his team's encounter with Multan Sultans in PSL 2024. (Getty Images)

This could be the dress rehearsal for the PSL final on March 18.

Gladiators In Playoffs After Four Seasons
Usman Khan The Shining Light For Sultans
Quetta Gladiators vs Multan Sultans – Tips and Preview

Multan Sultans, runners-up of the previous two editions, are up against two-time champions Quetta Gladiators. The winner of this clash will take the top spot in the league standings.

Sultans have six wins in nine games, which puts them on 12 points. Gladiators are third with five wins in nine games, along with a washout. That extra point, thanks to the abandonment could well prove to be the differentiator if the Gladiators win. On paper, this is as exciting a contest as it can get.

Gladiators In Playoffs After Four Seasons

It took them a while to guarantee their playoff spot, but they couldn’t have done it more sensationally. Mohammad Wasim Junior displayed his batting chops in whipping Shaheen Afridi over square leg for six, with Gladiators needing four runs to win. It got even Sir Vivian Richards, the team’s mentor, sprinting to the middle with unbridled joy.

While Wasim put on the blockbuster act, the win was anchored by Saud Shakeel, who made a 65-ball 88 to steer their chase of 169. Shakeel, who broke through during the Tests against Sri Lanka last year, has proved to be an equally reliable white-ball player over time, ever since he was picked in Pakistan’s 2023 World Cup squad, where he impressed sporadically.

The other aspect of the Gladiators that shone through was that this is a team that isn’t heavily reliant on its top order. We saw how, at no stage, did they panic even after losing the quick wickets of Jason Roy and Rillee Rossouw, two of its key overseas personnel.

Usman Khan The Shining Light For Sultans

They’d like to think their defeat to Islamabad United was an aberration, but Sultans appeared to have let complacency get the better of them in the fixture. Their bowling came a cropper, and once they conceded 232, victory was always going to be a tall order.

Colin Munro returned to his destructive best to make a 40-ball 84, while Shadab Khan continued to show his all-round prowess, making 54 off 31. Sultans made an excellent fist of the chase, with Usman Khan hitting his second successive century, this one off 50 balls, to take them to the doorstep of victory. Eventually, bowling cost them and the target seemed just out of reach. But even in defeat, the Sultans went down fighting and took a lot of heart from the performance.

Quetta Gladiators vs Multan Sultans – Tips and Preview

Sultans have the pedigree, as do Gladiators, who look quite a formidable unit under Shane Watson. Gladiators’ local depth of excellent Pakistani batters and quicks gives them a slight edge in this clash.