Victorious Royals v Radiant Stars

Virtually a knockout match, the Stars and Royals clashed at LGCC for their final league fixture of the season and to determine which of the 2 sides remains within the competition. The Royals could remain within the competition and also stake a claim for top 2 spots with a win, whereas the Stars needed 2 points to secure an 8 point finish and hoping that their NRR will see them through to the play offs. An important toss was won by Babar, the captain of the Royals elected to bat first.

Still looking for the best combination, the Royals opened up with the left/right combo of Usama Muneer and Talha. The left handed Usama (26 off 21) set the tone early for his side with shots of authority all around the park. A late flurry of wickets within the powerplay, especially with captain Salman Jajja (2-30) striking with the ball turned the tide massively in favour of the Stars with the score at 47-3. Today was the day where the Royals needed their senior guns Abid and Fazl to deliver, and a 51 run partnership between the two helped the Royals to find their way out of the woods.

Some excellent, defensive bowling by Muneeb enabled the Stars to remove Abid Ahmed who was slowly getting into his dangerous groove, and then excellent composure with the ball by Farukh saw the removal of Fazl (43 off 35) and the score now at 128-6 in 17 overs. Mohsaf has been making a lot of noise with the ball this season whereas he hasn’t yet come to the party with the bat. This was to finally change today as Mohsaf added a valuable 19 off 11 alongside Aqib who also added 12 off 6 to propel the Royals to a very decent total of 161-7! The Stars were going to need to score at 8 an over on a wicket that was becoming slower and slower with the progression of the game.

The openers Daud and Tehseen from the Stars knew their tasks, and the first was to ensure they survive Mohsaf’s new ball exploits. Whilst Daud wanted to deal with this in his own way by delivering a huge six back over Mohsaf’s head on the second ball of the chasing innings, Mohsaf wasn’t going to let this battle go with Abid Ahmed snapping up Daud behind the stumps with some excellent glove work! Mohsaf struck gold straight away against captain Salman Jajja on the very first ball he faced, and then trapped the league’s leading run scorer Tehseen in the 3rd over of the powerplay with his trademark in-swing delivery on the pads! The Stars top order was in total disarray with the 3 big runs scorers all back in the dug out and the score at a depressing 13-3.

An opportunity arose for Farukh and Ehtisham to become the heroes for the day as both batters slowly built themselves in the crease. Picking up singles and doubles regularly, and then choosing the right balls to dispatch to the boundary, the pair put on a valiant 59 run partnership enabling the score to reach 72-3 on the stroke of the 10 over mark. Giving their team a chance to chase this total with a required rate of 9 per over. The Royals desperately needed a breakthrough and for this they called upon the experience of Abid Ahmed to bowl crucial middle overs. Abid responded accordingly by providing his side the breakthrough with the wicket of Farukh, and then Abid ran through the Stars lower order whilst Ehtisham remained stranded at the other end. Abid finished with excellent figures of 3-17 in his 4 overs, having finally removed Ehtisham (50 off 40) who fought hard to keep his side in the hunt. Eventually, the Stars finished the game and their campaign for this season with 121 runs by the end of their innings. A convincing 40 run win for the Royals and a secured spot in the play offs!

The Royals have done what they needed to do in order to ensure their good work from the early stages of the season does not go to waste and have finished above the Warriors, Conquerors and Challengers at least (who all wait anxiously to see how the results will fare for them going forward). This win will most likely give them two bites at the Cherry with a top 2 play off match. The stars unfortunately did not align for the Stars this season as they most likely have to bow out with 6 points and a very unlikely chance to slip through on NRR. Although, they did have one of their better campaigns in the league competition with some great performances. It was great to see the development of a player like Tehseen own the tournament with some excellent batting performances, whilst Salman Jajja has lead his young side well as was his aim to challenge for the trophy through an injection of young legs with the wisdom of senior pros.