Saturday Championship – 20th February 2016
The final round-robin matches in Division 1 were played on Saturday that helped sort out the pecking order for the play-off games.
Saturday Championship Division 1
HKCC Nomads v KCC Saracens
At Hong Kong Cricket Club, the first match of the Division 1 play-off series was played between HKCC Nomads and KCC Saracens.
Saracens’ decision to bowl first paid earlier dividends as Vishal Sharma made three early strikes to leave Nomads in a spot of bother at 3/46. A 110-run partnership between Nomads’ skipper Kym Graham (57) and Andrew Swan (73) got Nomads back in the game but both batsmen fell with the score on 156. Their middle order batsmen made a number of useful contributions and Nomads finished on 7/228 from their 35 overs. For Saracens, Vishal Sharma was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/16 off seven overs.
The Saracens reply got away to a useful start and they looked well placed at 2-93 with skipper Sunny Bhimsaria hitting 30 but two quick wickets set them back to 4/107. Saracens’ middle order wasn’t quite as prolific as Nomads and the regular loss of wickets tempered their run-chase. Simondeep Singh hit 60 and Suhaib Ahmad 44 but their efforts were in vain as Saracens finished 26 runs short.
At HKCC: HKCC Nomads 7/228 from 35 overs beat KCC Saracens 9/202 from 35 overs by 26 runs.
HKCC Gap Rambles v KCC Crusaders
At Kowloon Cricket Club, HKCC Gap Rambles secured their place in the top 5 following a six wicket win over KCC Crusaders.
Crusaders batted first after winning the toss but they could only manage a total of 7/148 from their 35 overs. Top scorer for Crusaders was Ravi Sujanani with 52 while Dylan Dearing hit 36.
Crusaders made an early strike in the second innings but a half-century from skipper David Varley helped Gap Ramblers over the line with plenty of overs to spare. Stuart Tohill finished unbeaten on 32 for Gap Ramblers.
At KCC: KCC Crusaders 7/148 from 35 overs lost to HKCC Gap Ramblers 4/152 from 30 overs by six wickets.
Pakistan Association v CCC Jing Sun
At Mission Road, Pakistan Association ensured they finished the round-robin matches on top of the points table with a bonus point victory over CCC Jing Sun.
CCC Jing Sun won the toss and elected to bat first and they made a solid start despite the loss of an early wicket. Giacomo Lamplough (39) and Chris Owen (59) had CCC handily placed at 1/113 but a cluster of wickets saw them reduced to 5/122. The middle and lower order batsmen made some useful contributions and CCC Jing Sun finished their innings at 8/182 after 35 overs. Mohammed Huzafah did much of the damage for Pakistan Association as he grabbed 4/27 from his seven over spell.
Pakistan Association recovered splendidly from the loss of two early wickets thanks to a third wicket partnership of 122 between Daniyal Bukhari and Zamir Ali who both hit 64. Pakistan Association cruised to victory in the 27.3 overs to earn a valuable bonus point.
At Mission Road: CCC Jing Sun 8/182 from 35 overs lost to Pakistan Association 5/187 from 27.3 overs by five wickets.
Saturday Championship Division 2
The Division 2 play-off places are still unclear and there are still a handful of round-robin games to be played before the top five/bottom five places can be determined.
DLSWCC Spartans v Laguna Gully
However, DLSWCC Spartans improved their chances of reaching the top five with a narrow victory over Laguna Gully on the astro at PKVR Park in a match reduced to 33 overs per team.
Spartans elected to bat first after winning the toss but they were rocked early with both openers falling without scoring off the bowling of Shubham Mehta. Mehta grabbed a third early wicket but some solid middle order batting by Suresh Pandey (44) and Amanat Khan (34) got Spartans to 8/188 from their 33 overs. Mehta finished with the best bowling figures for Laguna Gully with 3/10 off three overs.
In reply, Laguna Gully was travelling well at 2/120 thanks to a half-century from opening batsman Mangesh Mulgaonkar. However, Mulgaonkar’s wicket triggered a dramatic batting collapse and Laguna Gully slipped to 181 all out. Shekhar Sharma also scored 33 for Laguna Gully.
At PKVR Park: DLSWCC Spartans 8/188 from 33 overs beat Laguna Gully 181 from 33 overs by seven runs.
CCC Hung See v Pioneers
With the Police Training College available again, but with CCC Hung See having already played all their round-robin fixtures, it was possible to play one Division 2 play-off fixture.
In the re-match between the two Chinese teams, CCC Hung See and Pioneers, the CCC team once again proved too good for their rivals who are still looking for their first win this season.
CCC Hung See won the toss and fielded first. Their bowlers struck early and Pioneers’ wickets fell regularly. Only two Pioneers batsmen registered double-figure scores, with Damien Yee’s 29 their best. Henry Siu grabbed 3/15 as Pioneers were dismissed for just 90.
In reply, CCC Hung See lost an early wicket but useful contributions from the remaining batsmen got them over the line in good time. Anthony Marrin top scored with 30.
At PTC: Pioneers 90 from 26.3 overs lost to CCC Hung See 3/94 from 16.2 overs by seven wickets.
Babar Hayat looked dangerous again but fell for just 18 off 16 balls. The pattern of good starts that went unfinished a sore point for captain Tanwir Afzal when summing up the tour. “The middle order batsmen made the same mistakes in all three games and we didn’t learn from it and that’s disappointing,” Afzal said. “We are a better team than this and we have a couple of players who were missing coming back for the World T20 so hopefully we can prove that.”
Afghanistan 7-178 (Aizaz Khan 3-38) def Hong Kong 112 (Anshuman Rath 41 Kinchit Shah 29) by 66 runs
After Poon’s tally it was one-way traffic for the league champions with Coady doing all of the driving, scoring two tries for Valley in the second quarter. Bella Milo added a penalty between the first two Coady tries, and a conversion on Coady’s second, to give Valley a 20-5 lead at the half.