Merciful Conquerors v Courageous Challengers

The penultimate and a defining game of the league season between the Conquerors and Challengers was practically a knock out fixture for both, with the fate of the Truthful Warriors also hanging in the balance pending the result here. The stakes were high in this fixture, as the Challengers won the toss and elected to bat first on a dark and gloomy afternoon at Alexandra Park.

Shahzad Ahmed has been bowling superbly well recently by delivering good overs in the powerplay and getting the breakthroughs for his side. Shahzad was once again amongst the wickets column removing the dangerous Marfoud and then Adeel Ahmed on back to back deliveries in the 3rd over, with the score at 10-2 and not the start the Challengers would have liked having opted to bat first. With Munaf as his partner, Captain Tahir Kang looked to shift the pressure back onto the MC bowlers with some boundaries to break the shackles. Just as when the partnership was building with a safe way out of the powerplay at 45-2, Kang was outfoxed by the cunning bowling of Usman Tahir in the 8th over, and this was indeed a huge breakthrough in the context of the game and the league table because a lot of CC’s batting depends on how well Kang fires for them!

The burden of scoring and keeping the innings together was substantially now on the shoulders of Munaf, but captain Faizan Warraich’s excellent bowling decisions post the 10th over mark especially with the decision to employ Safwan proved to be masterstrokes, with Safwan running through the CC lower order with figures of 5-11 in 2.5 overs.

The Challengers fell for a disappointing, massively below par total of 109. This total wasn’t going to challenge most sides, especially one that possesses a weapon in the form of Safwan and others who are capable of destruction too. Cricket however, is a game where nothing is over until the very last ball. It was time now to put this to test and see the outcome of which side ‘wants it more’ than the other.

With Safwan getting things going the way he usually does with 3 boundaries in the first over, Naufil Ahmed wanted to replicate Safwan’s ballistics but couldn’t do so by holing out to Tahir Kang in the second over….and opening the door for some kind of inroads at 13-1. Faizan promoted himself to number 3 to make sure this total is seen off, but Faizan too departed mounting the pressure slightly more on Safwan who was looking good on this track. The opening spell of good pace by Rizwan and Tahir Kang had the Conquerors struggling at 30-3 by the end of the powerplay, as Mudassar Dogar also departed without contributing much, but they would feel assured that they are still good to chase the total as long as Safwan is still at the crease. Perhaps the biggest setback suffered by the Conquerors was the one where they lost Qaiser Mahmood who struggled to gain any momentum, and now the MC dug out and Safwan also was feeling the pressure seeing no other batter has camped in to bat and score runs with him!

Ehsan ul Haye has had a quite tournament so far this season, but there was no better time to deliver than today as Ehsan had a huge opportunity to lock in to this track and cash in on the severe amount of pressure built up by the pacers. With Zeyan falling earlier and really pushing MC on to the ropes, Ehsan (3-10) delivered the most devastating blow by removing Safwan for 42 (off 24) and the score now at 56-6. The win predictor surely now had tilted in favour of the Challengers who had fought extremely hard to get into this position. The MC still possessed players of capability, but the closing out overs of Tahir, Rizwan and Faizanullah were excellent in keeping things tight and prizing out the remaining MC wickets!

A huge, huge victory for the Courageous Challengers who have now displayed an excellent performance with the ball following up their excellent performance with the bat in the previous game to secure a play off position! A painful, painful defeat and exit for the Merciful Conquerors who have no one to blame but themselves for this defeat! There cannot be any excuse to not chase 109, they know that they have let themselves down massively by not qualifying into the play off rounds with the quality and firepower they possessed this season!

There we have it, the 4 play off teams are now confirmed with the Challengers, Royals, Warriors and Defenders all booking their spot into the top 4. The Challengers have one more game in the groups to determine what the play off fixture schedule would look like in terms of positions. What does look confirmed is that the Defenders will play a top 2 spot play off fixture and the Warriors will play an eliminator.