FITCH U19 Championship - Day 3 Review
Wednesday 19th December

Game 5 – Kowloon Cricket Club V Independents 9:30 am start at Tin Kwong Road Recreational Ground
A young KCC side elected to bat first after winning the toss, on a bright sunny morning at TKRRG
Ahaan and Jayden started well before Mohammad Jaffar Khan made the breakthrough, dismissing Trivedi LBW on the last ball of the 4th over. The KCC batting struggled to score there on in, and wickets fell at regular intervals. The Independents used 8 different bowlers, with 7 of them taking one wicket a piece. Jaffar Khan and Jhangzeb were the only ones to bowl out, conceding just 14 and 11 runs respectively, and after 20 overs KCC could only manage 62/7.
However, the Vora brothers combined to make this a tricky chase for the Independents. Spinner Malhaar and seamer Darsh bowled well together with the new ball to reduce the Independents to 32/4 in 8 overs. Karandeep Singh poked his first delivery straight to point, Daniyal Butt skied one that was caught well by Ahaan, after which skipper Hamza Bukhari and allrounder Jaffer Khan were both pegged LBW in quick succession. Malhaar finished with 2/17 and Darsh 2/15, and when Nouman Ali was out bowled in thw 10th over by Trivedi, the Independents were 34/5 and in plenty of trouble.
Enter Zakir Hayat. After being dropped at backward point early in his innings, he proceeded to hit a boundary and two sixes on his way to a rapid 19* to finish off the chase. He was accompanied at the other end by Hamzah Farooq, who was steady for his 12* off 21, and the Independents picked up their 2nd win, climbing to 2nd in the table in the process. Standout performances:•Zakir Hayat (Independents) (19* off 16 balls) and (1-4 off 2 overs)•Darsh Vora (KCC) (2-15 off 4 Overs)•Malhaar Vora (KCC) (2-17 off 4 Overs)
Result:Kowloon Cricket Club (62-7) LOST to Independents (63-5) by 5 wickets | Scorecard


Game 6 – Hong Kong Cricket Club V Pakistan Association Cricket Club1:30pm start at Tin Kwong Road Recreational Ground
Later in the afternoon was the eagerly awaited match-up between HKCC and PACC. HKCC won both their matches in impressive manner on Day 1 at HKCC, while PACC looked good against KCC on Day 2. With both sides yet to taste defeat, there was plenty to play for, and PACC captain Wajid Shafi elected to field first after winning the toss.
Jhatha and Kabir started off well for HKCC – stealing quick singles and turning ones into two, employing sweeps and reverse sweeps to the spinners, and putting away any loose bowling. Aided by some wides and misfields, they put on 80 runs in just 11 overs, until Jhatha was dismissed caught off the bowling of Shoaib Rana. Kabir was then joined by fellow southpaw Tej Sheopuri, and together they pushed HKCC on past 100, with Kabir bringing up his fifty -the first of the tournament thus far. He was finally dismissed on 55 when he chipped one back to legspinner Umair Mohammad on the 5th ball of the 16th over. With just 4 overs to go, HKCC tried to raise the runrate, but could only manage 24 runs for the loss of 3 more wickets, and ended up on 138/5 – still a sizeable score in the context of this tournament. PACC tightened up towards the end of their innings, but were still faced with a challenging chase.
PACC then got off to a poor start in the chase. Ayush Shukla and Harry Ledger were right on the money with the new ball, and PACC found themselves at 18/3 inside the first powerplay. Hamaz Mohammad took it on himself to occupy the crease -in stark contrast to how he batted against KCC- while Ali Hussain found the fence regularly to keep the run-rate in check. Their partnership rebuilt the innings and brought their side back into the game, until Ali Hussain went for one shot too many, and was out caught smartly by Sachin Suresh on 28 off Hussain Khan’s bowling. At 65/4 in 10.2 overs, Hamaz was joined by Navdeep Singh, and the HKCC spinners got to work. Navdee and Hamaz got PACC to 100, but it came up at the end of the 16th over, as the spinners put a break on the scoring.
Needing 39 to win off the final 4 overs, the two of them had no choice but to take the bowling on, and they were both dismissed in the 17th over off Jhata’s bowling. Batsmen came and went, but no one could pull off the cameo they needed, and PACC ended their 20 overs on 120/9 – just 19 runs short of the target.
A big win for HKCC, this takes them to 3 out of 3 and all but books their spot in the finals. As for PACC, they now face a must-win scenario against the Independents tomorrow morning.
Standout performances:•Kabir Sodhi (HKCC) (55 off 49 balls)•Jhatadev Subramanyan (HKCC) (34 off 37) and (2-15 in 3 overs)•Ali Hussain (PACC) (28 off 18 balls)
Result:Hong Kong Cricket Club (138/5) BEAT Pakistan Association Cricket Club (120/9) by 18 runs | Scorecard

Tournament Page
Tomorrows fixtures at Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground are as follows:9:30am start – Pakistan Association Cricket Club v Independents1:30pm start – Diasqua Little Sai Wan v Pakistan Association Cricket ClubAnd at Kowloon Cricket Club:
1:00pm start - Kowloon Cricket Club vs Hong Kong Cricket Club<