Saturday’s matches saw wins for Eagles and Avengers, with the highlights a hat=trick for Nick Baxter, and a big century from Ali Raza.
In the first match, Royal Challengers were bowled out for 78, thanks to 3/17 from Abrar Khan, and 2/21 from Arif Rehman. Akash Singh top scored with 20. Exceptional bowling from Mukul Dhawan (4 overs, 3 wickets, 6 runs) had the Eagles in trouble at 13/3 but helped by a generous serving of 42 wides and 20* from Raheel Zaman, the Eagles recorded a 6 wicket win.
Scorecard
The Avengers are on a long unbeaten run, and this seemed to be in jeopardy as Nick Baxter ripped through their top order, taking 4 wickets down in the 1st over – including a hat-trick from the first three balls of the match. Avengers were 11/5 when a good partnership between Maanik Arora (25) and Muhammad Ali Raza led a strong comeback. Muhammad Ali Raza pushed on to score 133* with 15 sixes, earning both him and Nick spots on the Cricket NL Honours board. The Avengers totalled 206, with a last wicket partnership of 67 of which Saravana Kumar contributed 1 run, and Ai Raza the rest! NSK lost early wickets and ended up on 94/8 with the wickets shared among five bowlers.
Scorecard
In Sunday’s match the Royal Challengers make 165/6 with Akashdeep Singh making an unbeaten 57. M Zilani’s 64* brought the Tigers to within 14 runs of the win, but he Royal Challengers held on.
Scorecard
Thanks to the Avengers for some video of Saturday’s match