
KCL South Indoor 2025 – Match Report Week 1
2025 promises to be a special year with the new format of the KCL being played in the Hundred ball competition. The franchises have done their work in the pre-season draft, and now it was time to give the newly formed sides their opportunity to gel as one in the first tournament of the year with the indoor competition kicking off. 4 sides out of 8 featured in week 1, with some intense 4 wall bashing on display.
Game 1 (Radiant Stars v Mighty Strikers)
The Mighty Strikers under the new leadership of Rizwan Nasir breezed past the Stars in their inaugural clash, chasing 116 in 6 overs with the loss of 2 wickets. Farukh Tahir impressed for the Stars with a field day of a performance of 51* runs, being the only batsman to inflict some serious damage from his side. In reply, the Strikers successfully had 3 of their 8 players retiring with 25* scores to set up a fairly comfortable chase.
Game 2 (Merciful Conquerors v Truthful Warriors)
Unchanged in leadership, the Conquerors racked up an impressive total of 135 in their 8 overs, courtesy of some belligerent hitting from the bat of Safwan scoring 50* off 14 balls. New addition Fareed also announced his arrival with a welcome 35*, as other players failed to support Safwan in his assault. The Warriors in reply at one point did look well placed to chase the total down being 87-1 in 5 overs as Zeeshan, Daniyal and Hammad set their side up with not our retired contributions. However the finish was not ideal with the lower order batters unable to replicate the good work of the top order, falling 18 runs short of the total.
Game 3 (Merciful Conquerers v Mighty Strikers)
The strikers in good chasing form once again strolled home in the last over having restricted the Conquerors to a middling total of 118. Whilst the performers from the first match couldn’t fire this time, captain Faizan (36* off 13) and senior batter Mudassar (27 off 11) added valuable contributions to pose a total that could have challenged. The strikers were given the ideal start with Harawal retiring in 7 balls of the reply having laced 25 in 5 balls. With the tone set, the remaining batters all chipped away nicely towards the total, a good contribution of 27* off 8 balls from Muzamil as well helped the cause.
Game 4 (Truthful Warriors v Radiant Stars)
Both sides fell short in their opener, but the Warriors vented out their frustration in a furious manner with all batters getting a hold of the Star’s bowlers. With 3 batters (Zeeshan, Danial and Naveed) retiring with 25* scores, and all batters striking above 220, a mammoth total of 164 was posted, asking the Stars to score at 20 runs per over! Clearly overwhelmed with the task in hand, the Stars couldn’t muster a response worthy of chasing the total, and eventually limped to a final total of 106-7, falling 58 runs short of where they needed to be.
Week 1 ends with the Strikers securing 2 in 2, whilst the Conquerors and Warriors also ended the week with 1 win a piece. The Stars have fallen behind unable to register a win, but early days in the tournament and lots of opportunities still to come to turn things around for themselves.