

The Summer League got under way on Saturday with sunny skies. It was a good weekend for cricket with some fine performances and it was good to see many new faces on the field, as well as a new club, the NL Wolves.
Saturday saw three T20 matches, with the opener featuring a strong Tigers side taking on the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes showed they are going to be highy competitive this year with a disciplined bowling performance, restricting Tigers to 148/5. Fahad was top-scorer with 46*, and Mahe Alam Chowdhury led the bowlers with 2/21 from 4 overs.
The Hurricanes made a spirited reply, led by Gurman Khurana who made made 42 supported by Wahidur Rahman with 33. They were however always struggling to keep up with the run rate and eventually fell 7 runs short. Fahad was declared Indus Eatery player of the match.
The NL Wolves made their debut against experienced campaigners NSK in the second game, and acquitted themselves admirably. NSK batted first, and made 126/9, Talha Riaz (26), Nick Baxter (27) and Arif Sheikh (17*) being the main contributors. The Wolves bowled well and fielded exceptionally, with captain Akash leading the way with a superb direct hit run out, and a diving catch in the deep. The Wolves made a strong start to their reply, Aditya and Amandeep (19) putting on 53 for the first wicket and then Aditya (69) and Aryan Falke taking the score to 100/1 after 17 overs. The 18th over proved the turning point as 5 wickets fell, one fell to a run out and four to Arif. Wolves lost 8 wickets for just 10 runs, eventually losing by 13 runs.
Arif was named Indus Eatery player of the match, taking 4/18, as well as contributing useful runs.
The final match of the day saw the NL Eagles batting first against the Royal Challengers. The Eagles set a target of 167 runs, Najaf Raza making a quick 30*, and useful innings from Ajaypal Singh Gill (28*), Adeel Ilyas (26) and Raheel Zaman (23). Newcomer Shashi Parbhane led the bowling with two wickets.
In response, Royal Challengers started off briskly led by Ranvir Rana. Mukul Dhawan contributed 41 runs from 22 balls and Ranvir Rana took RC to victory with 67 runs off 47 balls. An exceptional six straight over the wicket-keeper on a fast neck-high beamer earned him the Indus Eatery Moment of the match winner and Mukul Dhawan was awarded the Indus Eatery player of the match.
Full details are available in the Match Centre