Courageous Challengers v Victorious Royals 

 

The Challengers and Royals walked into this fixture knowing a lot was at stake given both sides were soon entering the latter phases of the campaign. A defeat for any side would prove costly. The Challengers opted to bat first having won the toss.

 

There was trouble early on with the fall of Talha’s wicket at 9-1, but a 55 run partnership between Marfoud (36 off 25) and Monis restored stability for the CC for the second wicket. This was not to be capitalised upon, as the Challengers struggled to get anything away with regular wickets falling as no substantial partnership developed and no batsman could make a significant contribution. The batting team lost 6 wickets for 47 runs going into the close of their innings and posted an underwhelming total of 122-8. This should be a cakewalk for the Royals to chase down given how well the track at Alexandra Park has played off late. Or was this to be the case? 

 

The Royals chase was in a shambles very soon with Rizwan causing problems early on with 2 quick wickets for 16 on the board. Talha from Royals was gradually finding his footing in the game, but then it was Monis’s turn to cause havoc as he completely ran through the Royal’s middle order with 4 quick wickets (4-11 in 15 balls). A devastating, match defining spell leaving the Royals reeling at 47-6. Captain Babar has been in situations like this in the past and was in the process of maybe finding that clutch, rescue mission batting with a quick fire 24 off 12 balls. But the most experienced and wily campaigner from the Challengers (Fazl-e-Omar) took the crucial wicket of Babar, and the game was pretty much sealed for a CC win. Eventually, bowling out the Royals for 89, a win by 33 runs. 

 

The Challengers proved that the surface wasn’t as ideal for batting having displayed a great performance with the ball themselves, and have recorded an important win to keep them in the play off run for this season. As for the Royals, the alarm bells are now ringing as they have now lost 3 matches since their initial win. For them too, the margins of error are very much at bare minimum going forward.