All-rounder Joyeb Chand’s performance helps Kitwe Kings go past Heats’ challenge

On the other hand, Mohammed Kadva and Nitin Jesani got the Heats’ off to a brilliant start, scoring 29 runs in the first three overs, without any response from the Kings. However, Azhar Haveliwala immediately picked up Jesani’s wicket, who scored five runs off eight balls. Chetan Reddy too struck, sending Ashish Desai for a third-ball duck, with just 35 runs on board. Another wicket for Haveliwala left the Heats’ needing 45 runs for victory in the last four overs, with the score reading 48/3. A crucial knock from Aditya Kelkar (25 off 14) alongside Kadva’s 21-ball 35 took the side agonisingly close before Joyeb Chand sealed the deal for the Kings, who won by six runs. 

Brief scores: Ndola Blitz 65/2 off 8.2 overs (Harris 29 and Kandela 1/6) beat Kabwe Stars 64/6 (Nsensha 18 and Hawksworth 2/10)

After the thrilling opener, it was the turn of Kabwe Stars to turn on their game mode, against the Ndola Blitz. Both Ashraf Lulat and Godfrey Kandela fell to Blitz’ all-rounder Richard Parker, by the fourth over, with the score just reading 12/2. Stars’ keeper Allan Nsensha started picking the momentum, with a 14-ball 18 before he was trapped in front by the Blitz’ skipper Aiden Hawksworth. The skipper was once in business, with the wicket of Zakir Patel as Stars crumbled to 37/4. However, late efforts from James Zimba (8 off 12), Issac Mwaba (11 off 9) took the Stars to 64/6, alongside 11 extras. 

Issac Mwaba’s valiant 19-ball 41 not enough to help Stars overcome the Heats

Brief scores: Lusaka Heats 113/5 off 10 overs (Jesani 39 and Kandela 1/16) beat Kabwe Stars 89/4 (Mwaba 41 and Jesani 1/12)

Kabwe Stars, on the back of a drubbing loss, showed no difference in their batting, with an early wicket of Allan Nsensha, caught straight at the crease by Ashish Desai’s delivery. Soon after, a partnership between Ashraf Lulat and Isaac Mwaba bloomed to give a ray of hope to the Stars before Javid Patel walked the Stars batsman to a trap and quashed the chasing side’s hopes. Despite Mwaba’s exquisite knock, a 19-ball 41, where he struck three boundaries and cleared it as many times, only Mohammade Baidu could cross the two-digit mark, as they crashed to a 24-run loss, putting up just 89 runs on the board. 

James Green’s late heroics topples Kitwe Kings’ earlier efforts

Kitwe Kings, after their top-star performance in the very first game, came into this contest on a high in a similar fashion to Squire’s Blitz. However, as soon as the game started, the entire momentum flipped in Blitz’s favour, with an early wicket of Sarfraz Nomani. Vasim Akram, after adding 15 runs on board from eight deliveries, left the run-scoring responsibility at 37/2 to Madhawa Kawshal and Sarfraz Bhad. The two combined for a brilliant partnership, where they scored 35 runs in between them before Kawshal walked off for a 28-ball 36. Joyeb Chand, too, did not last long as the lower order could only add 14 runs to the board, with the total reading 86/6. 

Aiden Hawksworth swapped his place with Craig Stow at the top of the order alongside Connor Fletcher for the Blitz. However, this move did not work too well, with Hawksworth walking back to Ayaz Dadabhai with just five runs on board. Fletcher, who starred in the last encounter, did not trouble the scorers too much, with a seven-ball 12, leaving it to Stow and James Badcock to pull off another victory for them, with 60 more runs needed. While Stow and Badcock soon found their way back to the dressing room, an outrageous knock from James Green, a 15-ball 41 took the Blitz home with nine deliveries to spare.