Saturday Championship ─ Match Report (2nd, 4th April 2016)

Saturday, 2^nd April 2016

Saturday Championship Division 1

Hong Kong Cricket Club hosted another derby match with HKCC Gap Ramblers putting one hand on the 2015-16 trophy following a comfortable win HKCC Witherers.

Witherers batted first after winning the toss but they struggled against some tight Gap Ramblers bowling. Charlie Bright struck a solid 67 at the top of the order but he was only one of two Witherers’ batsmen to reach double figures on the day. The Witherers cause was not helped by three run-outs in their total of 158.

The Gap Ramblers batsmen batted with more purpose and their opening pair put on 58 for the first wicket. Jhathavedh Subramanyan struck 59 while David Varley (32*) and Peter Boa (42*) shared an unbroken fourth wicket partnership of 73 to get Gap Ramblers over the line with three overs to spare.

Gap Ramblers’ win leaves them with a seven-point buffer at the top of the table with KCC Saracens the only team with a chance to overall them. Should Saracens beat Pakistan Association next weekend, there will be a mouth-watering title-deciding match between the two at HKCC on 16 April 2016.

At HKCC: HKCC Witherers 158 from 35 overs lost to HKCC Gap Ramblers 3/162 from 32 overs by seven wickets.

At Kowloon Cricket Club, the hosts KCC Tartars batted and bowled their way out of relegation trouble with a solid win over CCC Jing Sun.

Tartars got off to a wretched start after electing to bat and they were quickly reduced to 2/2 with Matt Rafter claiming both wickets. However, some assured batting by Ankur Vasishta got Tartars up to 5/189 with Ankur contributing a brilliant 130 not out.

CCC Jing Sun made a disastrous start to their run-chase as Afzaal Haider and Gurjant Singh destroyed their top order. From 6/20 there was no coming back and they were eventually all out for 107. Elliot Andrews (28) and Ryan Rollason (33) saved their blushes with an 81-run seventh wicket partnership. For Tartars, Gurjant Singh claimed 4/27 from six overs while Daood Ashfaq cleaned up the tail to finish with figures of 3/17 from five.

Tartar’s win means the relegation of the second team in the Saturday Championship Division 1 will be decided by the game between KCC Crusaders and DLSWCC Sarjan – that game also being played on 16 April 2016.

At KCC: KCC Tartars 5/189 from 35 overs beat CCC Jing Sun 107 from 25 overs by five wickets.

Saturday Championship Division 2

At Mission Road, USRC/MCC confirmed their promotion to Division 1 in 2016-17 with a bonus-point win over Laguna Gully CC.

Laguna Gully elected to bat first after winning the toss but they got little payback from their top four who were all dismissed with less than 50 runs on the board. The middle order provided the bulk of Laguna Gully’s runs with Abhishek Desai (28), Vikram Thareja (51) and Pranav Shah (31) all making useful contributions in their 178 all out. Balal Mohammad was the best of the USRC/MCC’s bowlers with 4/28 from six overs.

Balal then made merry with the bat, hitting 69 not out as USRC/MCC streaked home in the 28th over to earn a bonus point. Balal had good support from Umar Mohammad, Vishal Mehta and Awais Mohammad who all made useful knocks.

At Mission Road: Laguna Gully 178 from 35 overs lost to USRC/MCC 5/179 from 27.1 overs by five wickets.

Three players named Brett had good days at PKVR Park where Kai Tak scored a bonus point victory over Pioneers.

Pioneers elected to bat first after winning the toss but they could only muster a total of 100 all out with Arthur Chiu’s 25 their best. Chief destroyer for Kai Tak was Brett Hutton who picked 4/26 in his seven over spell.

Three wickets to Emma Lai were the Pioneer’s highlight in the second innings as Kai Tak eased to victory in 16.5 overs. Brett Wintergate led the Kai Tak chase with 50 not out while Brett Richardson finished unbeaten on 25. Emma finished with figures of 3/27 from six overs.

At PKVR Park: Pioneers 100 from 34.3 overs lost to Kai Tak CC 3/104 from 16.5 overs by seven wickets.

Monday, 4^th April 2016

Saturday Championship Division 2

The Ching Ming Festival holiday allowed one more match to be played in the Saturday Championship Division 2 competition and it was a doozy with Taipans chasing down a big score to beat DLSWCC Spartans.

The Spartans team batted first after winning the toss and they would have been happy with their efforts in a total of 6/263 from 35 overs. While all the Spartans’ batsmen made useful contributions, Hiren Patel (81) and Haroon Arshad (72) were outstanding in a third wicket partnership worth 121 runs.

The Taipans batsmen weren’t daunted by the formidable total and they prospered after the early loss of Romy Singh. Gurjinder Singh (36) and Zeeshan Haider (83) put on 90 runs for the second wicket while Jagmeet Brar (50*) added a further 60 runs with Haider for the third wicket. Manjinder Singh then struck an unbeaten 61 in an unbroken 108-run fifth wicket stand with Jagmeet that took Taipans to victory in 28.1 overs, earning them a bonus point.

At Mission Road: DLSWCC Spartans 6/263 from 35 overs lost to Taipans 4/266 from 28.1 overs by six wickets.