How the Pakistan Super League works
The PSL is Pakistan's franchise T20 league, run by the Pakistan Cricket Board. This guide explains how a season is decided, from the first league match to the final, in a way that holds true from one season to the next.
By the Manage Cricket team · Updated
Contents
What the PSL is
The Pakistan Super League is a Twenty20 competition between franchise teams named after cities, organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). It began in 2016 with five teams, added a sixth in 2018 and grew to eight in 2026, when two new franchises joined. Each side mixes Pakistani players, including young emerging players, with cricketers from overseas.
Every match is a normal T20: 20 overs a side, no bowler allowed more than four overs, and a six-over powerplay at the start of each innings when only two fielders may stand outside the 30-yard circle. What makes the PSL its own competition is the way the season is organised and the rules about who may play.
The league stage and the points
A season opens with a league stage. The teams play each other on a fixed schedule at venues across Pakistan, and every result goes into one points table. The points are simple:
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Win | 2 |
| No result or abandoned | 1 each |
| Tie, when the Super Over cannot be played | 1 each |
| Loss | 0 |
A tied match is not left as a tie if it can be helped: the two teams play a Super Over, one over each, to find a winner, and the winner takes both points. Only when the Super Over cannot be completed do the teams share the points.
When teams finish level on points
With so many teams on the same number of points near the cut-off, the tiebreak often decides who reaches the playoffs. The PSL's playing conditions separate teams level on points in this order:
- More wins in the league stage.
- If wins are level too, the higher net run rate.
- If that is still level, more wickets taken per legal ball bowled, in the matches that had a result.
- If nothing separates them, the toss of a coin.
Net run rate is the runs a team scores per over minus the runs it concedes per over, across the whole league stage. A team bowled out early is counted as if it had faced its full 20 overs, matches without a result are left out, and a Super Over never counts. Our net run rate guide works through an example, and the free net run rate calculator does the sums for you.
The playoffs: a second chance for the top two
The top four teams in the table go through. Instead of plain semi-finals, the PSL uses a ladder that rewards finishing first or second:
- Qualifier 1: first plays second. The winner goes straight to the final.
- Eliminator: third plays fourth. The loser is out.
- Qualifier 2: the loser of Qualifier 1 plays the winner of the Eliminator for the other place in the final.
- Final: the winner of Qualifier 1 against the winner of Qualifier 2.
Some seasons have named these matches the Qualifier, Eliminator 1 and Eliminator 2, but the ladder is the same. The top two can lose once and still reach the final; the teams in third and fourth must win three matches in a row to lift the trophy.
The table finishes: A first, B second, C third, D fourth.
Qualifier 1: B beats A. B is in the final.
Eliminator: C beats D. D is out.
Qualifier 2: A beats C. A has used its second chance.
Final: B against A.
The weather has its own rule. If a playoff match ends with no result, the team that finished higher in the league goes through. The final has a reserve day, and if that is washed out as well, the team placed higher in the league stage is declared champion. That is one more reason the league table matters to the very end.
Overseas and emerging players
Each team's playing eleven must include at least seven Pakistani players and three or four overseas players, so there are never more than four overseas players in the side. At least one of the local players must be an emerging player, a rule that gives young cricketers a place in every match.
The cap holds for substitutes too. A team that picks four overseas players can only send an overseas substitute on to the field in place of another overseas player, so there are never more than four on the field at once.
From the draft to the auction
For its first ten seasons the PSL built its squads through a players' draft. Players were placed in categories such as Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging, and the teams took turns to pick in each category, with supplementary picks at the end to complete a squad. Teams could also keep some of their players from the season before.
From the 2026 season the PCB replaced the draft with a player auction, the first in the league's history. In an auction the teams bid against each other for each player and must stay within a salary purse, and they may still keep a limited number of players before it starts. The PCB sets the details, such as how many players can be retained and the size of the purse, before each season, so check its announcement for the year you are following.
Running your own league the PSL way
The PSL's shape works for a club competition too: a round robin, two points a win, net run rate to split ties and a playoff stage at the end. In Manage Cricket you can run a tournament as a league that finishes with a final for the top two or semi-finals for the top four, and the points table and net run rate update by themselves after every result. Planning a league on paper first? Try the free points table maker.