KARACHI PANTHERS vs KALSOFT KNIGHTS
(AL-WAKEEL CRICKET LEAGUE)
The much anticipated Al-Wakeel Cricket League kicked off at SKBZ cricket ground with two exciting teams ready to produce the goods. Kalsoft Knights and Karachi Panthers faced each other in ambition to start the tournament with a win. Kalsoft Knights batted first and were off to a steady start. Shahbaz Asif looked good as he smashed a four and a six in the early stages of the innings. But that was all he could offer, as he lost his wicket at the score of 13. This was the first blow to the Knights and they could not recover from it. One after another, the batsmen kept on losing their wickets and lost control of the situation. Danish Dossani was the only batsman who stayed on the pitch for a longer time. With 40 runs off 41 balls, Danish kept on trying to shift the momentum in his team’s way. But he lacked assistance from the other end, as only Adeel Veerani and Raheel managed to reach double figure scores apart from the openers. The bowling was fantastic and immaculate from Karachi Panthers. 3 wickets each were picked by Anas and Waqar Zubair, while Madni got one to his name. The rest of the bowling attack also remained economical and restricted Kalsoft Knights to 112 runs for 8 at the end of 20 overs.
Karachi Panthers looked terrific right from the start of the second innings. After the loss of opening batsman Rameez Mehboob for 8, Karachi Panthers could have trembled. But a solid partnership from Asad Butt and Tabish, repaired the damage, and kept Karachi Panthers in the driving seat. Asad Butt scored a quick fire 44 run knock off just 29 balls while his partner Tabish stayed calm and composed with 25 runs of 23 balls. After thrashing the Kalsoft Knights’ bowling lineup at a huge run rate of 9.19, Karachi Panthers chased the target in the 13th over. Losing only 3 wickets, Karachi Panthers won the match comfortably by 7 wickets.