Karachi Kings captain Imad Wasim won the toss and put Lahore Qalandars into bat at the National Stadium Karachi Thursday.

Imad said they would try to out Qalandars early and win the match. Karachi brought in Arshad Iqbal and Usama Mir in the team while Qalandars included Muhammad Faizan in place of Maaz Khan.

Lahore Qalandars emerged as victorious when both teams met first in the Pakistan Super League 2020 season at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium. The match was a memorable one for Australian Ben Dunk who broke his own record of hitting most sixes in a single PSL innings with 12 maximums in his unbeaten 41-ball 99.

Karachi Kings will look to take revenge on their home ground and in front of their home crowd and a win in the match will also cemented their position at the points table to be a strong contender to move to next round. Karachi are currently on fifth place at the points table with 7 points and have still three matches to play.

On the other hand Qalandars are looking to replicate their heroics in Karachi too as the win will take them into the play-offs. They are riding on a good batting form of their batsmen as their all top batsmen have hit half-centuries now and depth in their batting line-up and power hitting ability have led them to three consecutive victories in the event so far. Qalandars are third on the points table with 8 points after playing eight matches so far and need one win in their last two encounters to move forward.

Coronavirus threat

Fans kept coming to the National Stadium for the one of the most spiced up rivalry as authorities go ahead with the scheduled PSL matches to brush off fears for the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision to move ahead with the league comes as anxiety escalated globally about the potential of unchecked transmission of the virus at big sports events. Sporting events around the world have been cancelled or postponed over the virus, including the suspension of NBA games in North America.

Social media users in Pakistan voiced concerns over authorities continuing to host games despite a rise in coronavirus cases.

"Still trying to understand why PSL hasn't been canceled during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC," tweeted Fatima Bhutto. "World's best sports events are cancelled but in Pakistan flight operations are still going on, PSL is still not banned... Where we're headed?" added Twitter user Asim Siddiq.

However, officials insisted the situation was under control. Pakistan has recorded just 20 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus -- including several in Karachi -- but no deaths, according to Mumtaz Ali Khan from the National Institute of Health.