It was Shareef, the new Sheriff in town, all the way

Starks's captain, Tara Singh, won the toss and elected to bat with some dew still around and an outfield that is need of some grooming.  After a delayed start, Mayank and Bali set out to open the innings but both made early returns to the pavilion leaving the Starks at 10/2 after 2 overs.  Shareef and Venu took control of the innings, negotiating the Dark Knight's pace attack, chipping away with 1s and 2s while dispatching the bad balls away for boundaries. Bhavesh bowled his complete quote in a single spell and left shortly after (the super-sub left for Dark Knights also left later in the match) which meant they would have to bat with only 10 players.

Starks were 94/2 at the halfway mark and Venu got dismissed immediately after the break, ending an 80+ run partnership.  Vishal provided excellent support to Shareef by rotating the strike and hitting timely boundaries. After Vishal's dismissal, the rest of the batting order failed to stick around with Shareef and Starks lost wickets in quick succession. As always, Divyesh was economical in his spell taking key wickets at the right time. Starks were bowled out for 189 with Shareef scoring 76 off 71 with (4) fours but this would not be the end of his mercurial effort today.

Knight Riders opened with Sai and Praveen. Sham in his new role as opening bowler picked up the wicket of Sai. Yoga came next and played aggressively to get the run-rate back on track but fell to a difficult catch by Sumeer.  This was Shareef's first wicket who would later go on to grab 5 more with his loopy leg and top spinners. Shareef picked up the next 2 wickets pretty quickly of Rahul and Praveen (who fell to a sharp, low catch by Sherwin at mid-wicket).

Knight Riders were 84/4 after 15 over and with Kunal/Hardik on the pitch and Divyesh to follow, an exciting end was on the cards.  The first over after the break was taken for 16 runs.  Ahmed came into the attack and bowled a maiden to restore balance. A good call by Tara, brought Venu back into the attack who bowled out Kunal to put the pressure back on Knight Riders. Starks tried a couple bowlers from the other end to restrict the power-hitting of Hardik and Divyesh but both batsmen were starting to get in their zones, easily dispatching the bad balls across the boundary for (5) fours and (5) sixes. 

A gutsy call from Captain Singh also included giving the ball to Sumeer to bowl the 27th and 29th over.  With 5 needed off 12 balls, Vamsee top edged to square leg which resulted in a beautiful catch by Bali who ran and dove to get the opposing captain out and end the Knight Riders' innings.

This was a performance to remember for Superman Shareef who finished with figures of 76(71) and 6-0-31-6 and one that should be ranked pretty highly among the all-time HCCA all-around performances.

Great umpiring by Jay, many thanks for officiating.

All the best to Knight Riders for remaining games . Game was played in superb spirit.