Peshawar Zalmi will face Lahore Qalandars in Sharjah on Friday in the penultimate match of the group stage fixtures before the four top sides in the league progress to the playoffs.

While the Qalandars — who are already out of the running — will be looking to extend a surprising three-win streak, the game holds immense importance for Zalmi as a loss today will knock the defending champions out of the race for the PSL 3 trophy.

Having lost three of their last four games, Zalmi will want Kamran Akmal, who scored 75 against Karachi Kings yesterday, and skipper Darren Sammy to continue playing their brand of fiery cricket.

Meanwhile, the Qalandars — who have turned up as an entirely different side after being eliminated from the trophy campaign — will rely on power-hitters Fakhar Zaman, Anton Devcich and Brendan McCullum to pull one of their trademark innings out of their bags.

The match is scheduled to begin at 4:30pm, and, with the Karachi Kings vs Islamabad United game later in the day, will decide which two of the three sides — Multan Sultans, Karachi Kings and Peshawar Zalmi — will march ahead.

If Zalmi win today and Kings lose, the former will take the second spot on the table, giving them an extra chance of making it to the final, as the top two teams will play a qualifier in Dubai, the winner of which will go directly to Karachi.

The loser of the qualifier will play the winner of the first eliminator between the teams ranked third and fourth on the table.