Defenders of Peace v Mighty Strikers

It was another crunch fixture in the KCL as the league leaders and defending champions (DOP) took on the enterprising Strikers side at Alexandra Park. The Strikers desperately needed a win today to get their campaign on the roll. Haseeb Ahmed the captain of the the Defenders won the toss and elected to bat first on what was once again a warm evening in London.

Skipper Rizwan was striking early for his side with the early wickets of Aamir and Saqib with the score at 6-2, but a 54 run partnership between Hadi and Hafiz Zafarullah gave some stability back to the Defenders. Another burst of mid innings wickets by Rana Zeeshan who bowled a phenomenal spell of 3-8 in his 20 balls had the Defenders on the ropes with the score at 69-6 in 68 balls. In desperate need for runs, skipper Haseeb Ahmed and Rana Waleed decided to throw caution to the wind and added a phenomenal 76 runs in 32 balls for the side! This included a brutal 50* off 20 balls by the captain and 6 maximums, plus 5 fours by both Haseeb and Waleed! A fantastic finish by the Batting side who ended up with a defendable total of 145-7.

With the momentum now on their side, the Defenders also started all guns blazing with the ball as Hamza Iqbal was all over the Strikers with 3 early scalps of Imran, Usama and Muzamil with the score at 3-29 in 14 balls. A fast and rollicking start meant that the Strikers were slightly ahead of the rate with Qaiser guiding them through the middle, building good partnerships with Rehan and Ali Raza. However, some excellent middle overs by Haseeb, Hadi Waleed who bowled 60 balls between them for 61 runs really stemmed the runs flow. Adil was given the task of defending 19 runs in the last set of 5 balls, and although there were some heart racing moments for the bowling captain, with 17 runs hit by Qaiser (58* off 46), the game was just about won by 2 more runs at the end as the Strikers finished 143-6!

Definitely the game of the season as this was a thrilling encounter. The late innings carnage by Haseeb and Waleed became the defining contribution at the end, with Haseeb deservedly the man of the match for this game. The Strikers although were so close this time have registered another defeat in this year’s campaign. They must get their act together now going forward considering the wonderful players they have at their disposal this year.