Peshawar Zalmi face debutant Hyderabad Kingsmen in PSL 2026 final at Gaddafi
Peshawar Zalmi and Hyderabad Kingsmen meet at Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday night for the Pakistan Super League 2026 final, capping a season that produced both a dominant league phase and the competition's most improbable run from a debutant. The match starts at 7pm Pakistan time, 7.30pm IST.
How they got here
Peshawar finished the league stage as runaway leaders with eight wins from ten games, one loss, a no-result and an NRR of +2.324, sealing 17 points. They then crushed Islamabad United by 70 runs in Qualifier 1 to book a direct passage to the final, with Babar Azam smashing 103 off 59 to power the side to 221 for 7 before bowling Islamabad out for 151.
Hyderabad Kingsmen took the longer road. After losing four matches in a row to open their debut PSL season, Marnus Labuschagne's group flipped the script, won seven of their last eight, and forced their way into the playoffs. They knocked Multan out by eight wickets in Eliminator 1, then survived a death-overs scare against Islamabad in Eliminator 2, where Hunain Shah conceded only three runs in the 20th over with the opposition needing six, sealing a two-run win.
Babar carrying the run charts
Babar Azam is the standout individual story of PSL 11. His 588 runs in ten innings, averaging 84 with a strike rate of 146.26, lead the tournament and equal the most runs in a single PSL season. The probable Zalmi XI is built around Babar at the top with Mohammad Haris keeping wicket, Kusal Mendis offering experience and Michael Bracewell, Abdul Samad and Aaron Hardie providing all-round options. Iftikhar Ahmed slots in lower down, and Nahid Rana headlines the seam attack.
Kingsmen lean on a stacked middle order
Labuschagne's Hyderabad XI features Glenn Maxwell, Saim Ayub, Usman Khan and Kusal Perera through the middle order, with the captain himself anchoring at three. Usman led the way in the playoffs with an unbeaten 61 off 30 against Islamabad, and Maaz Sadaqat's 64 not out off 33 was the cornerstone of the eight-wicket win over Multan. The Kingsmen's run has been built on contributions from across the order rather than one outstanding name.
A Gaddafi pitch that has favoured batting
The Gaddafi Stadium surface has averaged close to 188 in first innings during PSL 11, with several totals north of 200 chased down. Recent matches at the venue have rewarded sides willing to bowl first and chase, and there is little to suggest the final will play out differently.
The two sides met once before this season, in Karachi, where Peshawar pulled off a four-wicket chase of 146 in a last-over thriller after Iftikhar Ahmed's late hitting flipped the equation. Hyderabad will arrive at Gaddafi as outsiders again, and a debut campaign will end either with the trophy or, given how they got here, with the league's biggest underdog story still very much intact.
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