Shakir Ahmed, the captain of the strikers was inserted into the field, and the start was rollicking by the Knights! A 75 run opening stand between Trustworthy Knight’s Daud Ahmed and Hafiz Zafar put the MS to the sword who needed answers quickly before the game threatened to get out of their sights.

The answer was found with experience coming to the fore, as Fazl-E-Umar brought all of his tricks to the party and made crucial inroads for the Knights. From 75-0 to 90-6 in the space of 8 overs, Fazl was exceptional in weaving a web around the TS batsmen, and finishing with outstanding figures of 4-13 in his four overs. A late innings resistance by the Captain Waseem Ahmed with the help of All-Rounder Ata-ul-Hadi helped the Knights to dig themselves out of a hole and reach a defendable total of 140-7 at the end of their 20.

Having done brilliant to restrict the Knights for a decent total considering the start they had, the Strikers themselves were in deep trouble as the left arm spin of Fareed Ur Rehman became the tormentor once again on this deck. Having lost two early wickets in the powerplay, the strikers struggled for momentum throughout the first half of the chase, as they could not build any meaningful partnership and found themselves 60-7 with the fall of Shakir’s wicket in the 11th over. Fareed matched Fazl’s first innings brilliance with figures of 4-16 and enabled his side to have the Strikers by the ropes hanging on for dear life!

Whilst wickets were falling around him, Qaiser Mahmood was quietly operating finding his feet on the crease, and he finally found a partner to stand with him in the form of his good friend Zeeshan Abdul Ali. A brilliant 8th wicket partnership of 59 runs was a display of patience and nerve by the strikers, and a reminder of how it is important to bat deep in your innings. Qaiser saw the innings through and the total was chased down with 2 balls to spare and a great 3 wicket win for the Strikers, who have had to work extraordinarily hard in order to secure these two points having been under the cosh for the most parts of the game!

Scorecard Summary is as follows;

 

Man of the Match;