Pakistan Super League

The Pakistan Super League is the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Twenty20 competition, contested by franchise teams representing cities across the country. It started in 2016 with five teams, grew to six, and expanded again to eight for the 2026 season.

The league stage is a double round robin, so every team plays each of the others twice. The top four then go into the playoffs. The route through them is worth understanding, because it is not a straight knockout: the sides finishing first and second get a second life, and third and fourth do not.

Points follow the usual T20 convention. A win is worth two, a defeat nothing, and a match ending without a result gives one point to each side. A tie does not leave the points shared, because a Super Over settles the result on the night.

Teams level on points are separated by net run rate, weighing the rate a side has scored at against the rate it has conceded at. The PSL goes a step further than most: if teams cannot be separated on that either, the result of the match between them decides the order.

The tournament has moved in the calendar. It was played in February and March for most of its history, and from 2026 it shifted later, running from late March into early May.