Saturday Championship ─ Match Report (19th March 2016)

Saturday Championship Division 1

At Hong Kong Cricket Club, HKCC Gap Ramblers beat Pakistan Association in a top of the table clash to regain the number one position.

The home side found themselves batting first after being sent in by the Pakistan captain Azam. Raag Kapur (68) and David Varley (36) put Gap Ramblers into a strong position at 1/138 following a stand of 99 runs. However, Varley’s wicket triggered a collapse that saw them slip to 7/159 with Mohammad Huzafah grabbing 3/45 from his seven overs. An unbroken eighth partnership of 63 got Gap Ramblers to a final score of 7/222 runs with Tom Ingram finishing unbeaten on 41.

The Pakistan Association’s reply got off to a reasonable start but the regular loss of wickets kept stalling their chase. A number of their batsman made useful starts but none reached 30. In the end, they were dismissed for 177 with the 45-run margin of victory earning Gap Ramblers a bonus point by the narrowest of margins.

At HKCC: HKCC Gap Ramblers 7/222 from 35 overs beat Pakistan Association 177 from 31.1 overs by 45 runs.

At Kowloon Cricket Club, CCC Jing Sun overturned their earlier result against CCC Crusaders and earned a valuable bonus point in the process.

Crusaders won the toss and elected to bowl first but the CCC batsmen made all the running. Their top six batsmen all made useful contributions with Matt Rafter’s 36 their best in a score of 163. The highlight for Crusaders was Bill Garnett’s hat-trick in the 32^nd over which gave him figures of 3/27 while Ravi Sujanani also claimed figures of 3/32.

The Crusaders run-chase never got going and they were all out in the 32^nd over for 95.

At KCC: CCC Jing Sun 163 from 35 overs beat KCC Crusaders 95 from 31.3 overs by 68 runs.

At Mission Road, DLSWCC Sarjan got back to winning ways with a resounding 75-run victory over Division 2 bound Centaurs.

Hudugur Gururaj top-scored with 65 while Sarfaraz Khan hit 46 and Aftab Hussain 43 as the Sarjan team racked up a total of 7/221 from their 35 overs. Ayub Khan was the only Centaurs bowler to inflict much damage as he claimed 3/50 from six overs.

Naveed Tariq led the Centaurs reply with 33 but his efforts were not enough to overhaul the Sarjan score and their chase petered out at 9/146. Mohammad Ghazanfar was the best of the Sarjan bowlers with figures of 3/23 from seven overs.

At Mission Road: DLSWCC Sarjan 7/221 from 35 overs beat Centaurs 9/146 from 35 overs by 75 runs.

Saturday Championship Division 2

At Police Training College, Kai Tak’s skipper led the way as dominated CCC Hung See.

Kai Tak lost the toss and batted first but they managed to post an impressive 4/251 from their 35 overs with their skipper Mohsin Naqvi hitting a fine 141 while Peter Williams contributed 47.

Willis Ho top-scored in his first outing for CCC Hung See but the rest of their batsmen struggled to keep out the Kai Tak attack with Chan Ka Ming the only other CCC Hung See batsman to reach double figures. CCC Hung See were eventually dismissed for 97 as Brett Winterscale grabbed figures of 3/19 for Kai Tak.

At PTC: Kai Tak 4/251 from 35 overs beat CCC Hung See 97 from 34.4 overs by 154 runs.

In the early match at PKVR Park, USRC/MCC improved their chances of promotion to Division 1 next season with a narrow victory over DLSWCC Spartans.

A strong opening bowling performance by Balal Mohammad (3/30) and Banny Singh (3/11) saw DLSWCC Spartans dismissed for 110 after electing to bat first.

The USRC/MCC reply got off to a poor start and they were struggling at 5/27 as Amanat Khan grabbed 3/12. However, Banny Singh came through with the bat to hit 40 and USRC/MCC squeezed home in the 33^rd over with two wickets to spare.

At PKVR Park: DLSWCC Spartans 110 from 25.4 overs lost to USRC/MCC 8/113 from 32.3 overs by two wickets.