DLSWCC Spartans Relegated to Saturday League Division 2, X-Cricketers struggle against HKUCC and Fin
The final few matches for the 2015/2016 season have ended for all teams. Apart from the Challenge League all the league seasons have ended. Below are reports of the matches that took over the last month which brought an end to various DLSWCC teams’ season.
DLSW JKN
The final game against HKCA Dragons on 24th April 2016 at Mission Road was abandoned because of a damned pitch due to rain.
DLSW Knights
On 17th April 2016 at Mission Road, in a match-reduced to 38 overs per side due to a wet field, Shaffi’s Vagabonds beat DLSWCC Knights by 46 runs.
Electing to bat first after winning the toss, Vagabonds got off to a poor start with both openers dismissed with only ten runs on the board. Niaz Ali grabbed two early strikes as Vagabonds stumbled to 4/38 before an enterprising 52 from Mohammad Junaid allowed them to reach 183 in 36 overs. Sarfaraz Khan was the pick of the Knights bowlers, picking up 3/43 from five overs.
The Knights reply began well with the openers adding 29 runs but from then on, it was muddling effort as wickets fell at regular intervals. Despite a number of Knights batsmen making useful starts, Niaz Ali was the only one to pass 20 and the end came quickly after his dismissal. Niaz top-scored with 34 while Zubair Khan claimed 4/11 for Vagabonds and Mohammad Saad took 3/38.
Match Summary: Shaffi’s Vagabonds 183 from 36 overs beat DLSWCC Knights 137 from 33.2 overs by 46 runs.
DLSW Sarjan
In the final match of the Saturday Division 1 Playoffs, KCC Crusaders and DLSWCC Sarjan battled to avoid relegation at Kowloon Cricket Club on 16th April 2016
DLSWCC Sarjan opted to bat first after winning the toss. Crusaders took an early wicket but a fine second wicket partnership of 81 between Mohammed Ibraheem (57) and Haroon Arshad (30) lifted them to 2/91. However, from there wickets tumbled regularly and DLSWCC Sarjan were eventually dismissed for 148 in 33 overs. Ashley Caddy and Chirag Kothari did most of the damage with the ball with Caddy claiming 4/18 in six overs while Kothari grabbed 3/27 in seven.
In reply, Chirag Kothari (36) and Ravi Sujanani (33) added 67 for the first wicket but a flurry of wickets saw the hosts slip to 4/82. However, calm heads prevailed in the Crusaders camp as Ashley Caddy and Aditya Kanthan saw Crusaders home with no further loss. Caddy finished on 30 not out while Kanthan was unbeaten on 37.
The result confirms DLSWCC Sarjan and Centaurs as the teams relegated to Division 2 for the 2016-17 season.
Match Summary: DLSWCC Sarjan 148 from 33 overs lost to KCC Crusaders 4/149 from 33 by six wickets.
DLSW Spartans
With the Mission Road ground reopened after a short break, Lamma CC took on DLSWCC Spartans in a Saturday Championship Division 2 match on 7th May 2016.
DLSWCC Spartans won the toss and elected to bowl first. Mohsin Khan grabbed an early wicket after which the floodgates opened as the Spartans’ at
tack washed away Lamma’s defences. From 2/32 Lamma were routed for just 53 with only two batsmen reaching double figures. For DLSWCC Spartans, Karandeep Singh claimed 4/17 and Hari Virani grabbed 3/6.
The Spartans’ batsmen had little trouble knocking off the runs inside 12 overs with opener Muhammad Haseeb hitting an unbeaten 38. For Lamma, Brenton McDonald picked up 3/20 in five overs.
Match Summary : Lamma CC 53 from 12.1 overs lost to DLSWCC Spartans 3/54 from 11.3 overs by seven wickets
The match on 28th May 2016 vs Laguna Gully at PKVR Reservoir was washed out. This already was a rescheduled game but guess the points were meant to be shared by the rain gods.
DLSW X-Cricketers
DLSW X-Cricketers managed to get a full game against the HKU Cricket Club Social Side. The match was played on Hong Kong University’s Sports Ground at Sandy Bay on 8th May 2016.
The X-Cricketers won the toss and elected to bat first. The team started slowly with the team strategy to play out the 35 overs and keep wicket in Hand. The opening pair did well and saw off the dangerous opening spell of the HKU bowlers. Parvesh Fabanani looked in good nick and seemed relax as he scored 12 runs. Maybe it was due to him knowing that he does not need to wicket keep in the game and would get a chance to bowl. The first wicket of Parvesh was lost in the 8th over with score on 28 runs. The score then quickly fell to 44/4 at the end of 17 overs. A mixture of good bowling and cautious batting kept the X-Cricketers score from ticking.
The 2nd half of the batting went much better, Manpreet Singh top scored with 35 runs and retired with good support from Karandeep (15), Ravi Nagdev (5) and Ashwan (5). 100 runs were scored in the 2nd half of the innings and the score was brough to 141. The team lost all their wickets in the 35th over. Although the team batted all their overs, the score was unfortunately below par at the venue against the home team who were used to batting in the flicx wicket.
HKUCC quickly chased the target with 7 wickets to spare in 21 overs.
X-Cricketers now await more matched from HKCA to complete their Challenge League fixtures.
