Rescheduled Matches - 23rd December 2000

Saracens v. DBS at KCC
Result: Saracens won by 60 runs

WHOEVER PLANNED THIS FIXTURE WAS OBVIOUSLY SCROOGE'S BROTHER, AS WE STRUGGLED TO PULL A SIDE TOGETHER TO PLAY A MUCH YOUNGER DBS TEAM. THE ONLY POSITIVE NOTE WAS THAT WE MANAGED TO PULL BEN BUTT OUT OF RETIREMENT TO BOWL HIS TWO OVERS.

AS USUAL, HAVING WON THE TOSS WE ELECTED TO BAT. HAVING NOT LEARNT OUR LESSON FROM THE PREVIOUS SEASON , WE TRIED A NEW EXPERIMENT TO UPSET THE DBS BOWLERS BY OPENING THE BATTING WITH SHIROY. WE WERE ALL FOOLED AS SHIROY BATTED FOR 15 OVERS AND WAS WELL SUPPORTED BY RAHUL, WHO NEEDED 110 RUNS TO BE THE FIRST BATSMEN TO ACHIEVE 1,000 RUNS THIS SEASON. NO PRIZES FOR GUESSING HE MANAGED A GOOD 140 RUNS NOT OUT, WITH THIS BEING HIS 6TH CENTURY OF THE SEASON. WITH 270 RUNS ON THE BOARD WE KNEW THE GAME WAS CLOSE (THIS IS THE SARACENS!!).

THE DBS BOYS MADE A ENTHUSIASTIC START SETTING ABOUT THIS RATHER LARGE (NOT AGAINST THE SARACENS) RUN CHASE, WITH ROY BATTING EXTREMELY WELL. THE TARGET PROVED TOO MUCH AS SARACENS OTHER VACHHA, ZARAN, BOWLED EXTREMELY WELL. CONCEDING ONLY 38 RUNS IN HIS 10 OVERS AND SNAPPING UP 2 WICKETS INCLUDING THE WICKET OF ROY. SANJAY AND RIKIN GRABBED TWO WICKETS RESPECTIVELY TO INSURE A REASONABLY COMFORTABLE WIN.

WITH ONLY A FEW LEAGUE MATCHES REMAINING THE BOYS ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE CUP COMPETITION, WITH GREAT HOPE OF REPEATING THEIR PERFORMANCE OF 1998.

At KCC: Saracens 258-2 (R Sharma 168*, R Sujanani 35) beat DBS 198-9 (R Lamsam 90) by 60 runs

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Tartars v. Kai Tak at Mission Road
Result: Tartars lost by 44 runs

No report received.

At Mission Road: Kai Tak 288-2 (T Patidar 51, A Burge 31, Hodgson 155*, C Williams 37*) beat Tartars 244-8 (Aftab 49, B Gohel 39, Khan 50; C Williams 3-50) by 44 runs

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Round 19 - 16th December 2000

Tartars v. Lamma at KCC
Result: Tartars won by 8 wkts

No report received.

At KCC: Tartars 176-2 (J Malhorta 65*, S Lama 79*) beat Lamma 174 (S Malik 101; S Lama 3-25) by 8 wkts

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Crusaders v. CCC at KGV
Result: Crusaders won by 22 runs

Hark the herald angles sing glory to the new born Toad. Toad of KGV this game will be recorded as in the annuals of Crusaders 2000-2001 campaign, as the Swedish Tennis pro repaid all those verbal boastings by actually getting the runs (and not in the toilet). After approaching the Captain two days before in Insomnia and being promised the open spot with Sir Green of Hobart he produced a golf like innings with very few grass cutters and lots of fades and hooks in reaching his highest individual score in Hong Kong (excluding the bets taken by him on the Aussie's beating everyone else at every sport played at Olympic and non-Olympic standard).

El Captain O won the toss (Christmas came early for him) and had some hesitation in choosing to bat. Sir Green and the aforementioned Toad played solidly until a wicked bounce from Uncle Fotheringham saw the demise of the Tasmanian Knight. The ravenous Scanlon gnashed his way to the wicket after harassing apparently Taipei air traffic control and the Chep Lap Kok equivalents (let alone the passengers) by leaving early from Taiwan and descending at the maximum descent angle and on landing then accelerating into the gate. All this to get his teeth into the CCC mean attack, which he did with his characteristic three irons until the thought of flying 747 came back to him and was bowled. Veteran strode to the wicket and was soon throwing his bat and shaking his hands in discussed from the alarming rising balls off a good length that seem to follow around the circuit. By this time Toad and reached a glorious fifty and was trying for the ultimate goal, ie. able to keep quiet for at least one hour. Unfortunately the prize of a century eluded him but all stood and applauded the efforts of a man that has lived up to his own talk for at least that day who then obviously taken over by such emotion promptly walked into a concrete wall and bloodied his knee. After the demise of Toad the innings fell away a little except for Veteran who played a few up cuts for sixes. Eames (ex- Crusader) bowled intelligently for a man who works for Yarpies and restricted all batsmen with his low bouncing skidders.

The aforementioned Eames was the key to the CCC innings and proved to be the one to get out. Sir Rodney Miles (nursing his international average of 101 - still no one can figure how this is calculated) was bowled by Imi and sent back in the first over in disgrace. Gareth at the other end after receiving the cable from the Captain swung the ball appreciably and claimed two wickets and may have had the Eames fellow out if Veteran was a few years younger!!!! At 47 for 3 with Eames still there, there was hope as the Midget submarine Jones surfaced at the wicket. The Captain tried Hyphen who was still nursing a gammy hamstring, which obviously affected his action as various wides resulted and, spear chucker Mohammed whose action has become even more questionable since last week. Runs were accumulating very nicely until drinks were taken and then the immediate return of Imi saw the demise of both Jones and Eames. From there on the Crusaders became generous with much of the Christmas spirit given to the opposition, we are Knights of the Cross you know. Even El Captain O got in on the act reckoning that anything Eames can do he can't, by claiming two very unfortunate wickets.

The game was marked by the return of Sir Green of Hobart's sense of humor as the angry fellow inside him was kept under wraps. Travalator was remarkable in the field considering it did look and play like the battle of the Some.

Happy Christmas and have a great New Year -Lards

At KGV: Crusaders 232-5 (T Johnsen 73, S Scanlon 45, R Brewster 57*; M Eames 3-22) beat CCC 210-9 (M Eames 58; I Farcy 3-41) by 22 runs

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Round 18 - 9th December 2000

Crusaders v. Tartars at KCC
Result: Tartars won by 69 runs

In what shaped up as a battle royal, KCC's two top teams of 2000, Crusaders and Tartars met in this mouth watering fixture. Both teams were still holding thoughts of championship honours - Tartars still undefeated and Crusaders needing a victory to narrow the gap at the top of the table.

Tartars won the toss and decided to bat, with the lanky figure of Anthony Correa joined at the crease by the rather less svelt figure of Anoop Nainani. After an unspectacular first over, the tone of the match was pretty much set in the second over, bowled by Todd Johnsen, who was experimenting with an abbreviated run up. In what was the longest over this writer has seen, ever, Johnsen bowled no less than 9 wides (or was the 8 wides and a no-ball?) and the only thing abbreviated was his spell - 1-0-19-0. Needless to say, the Tartars openers didn't look back and the two put together a century stand in pretty good time. Correa was the only one to offer a half chance to the hapless Johnsen. All the Crusaders' bowlers struggled to control their line and when drinks were taken, the score read 107-0, with the individual batsmen accounting for only 70 of those runs. The drinks break did nothing to improve things and the first over after the break bowled by Damian Green started with a sequence of 5 wides and a no-ball followed by a boundary! The poor bowling did nothing to take away from the excellent batting by Correa and Nainani, Correa in particular playing some excellent shots through and over the covers. When Nainani departed, Correa was joined by skipper TR Kalyanaraman and the two continued to milk the bowling for all it was worth. In fact all the batsmen scored runs today and they did so quickly - Correa fell with his personal score on 65, TR for 39 and Lama 31. Saeed Farooq was however the most punishing of the batsmen - in an awesome display of power hitting, he bludgeoned his way to 45 in about 20 balls with a number of huge sixes. The Tartars score had jumped dramatically up to 280 - the Crusaders bowlers had themselves to blame, conceding no less than 30 wides and 10 no-balls. The only pleasing aspect was that they managed to bowl their overs (all 42 of them) within the allowed time frame...

The Crusaders batsmen needed a good start but after hitting 2 boundaries off Eddie Tse, Travis Pittman drilled a full toss back to Sandeep Dukande, who accepted the chance with great pleasure (it is rumoured that Pittman middled everything that day - including the picket fence on his way back to the pavilion). Dukande bowled a tight opening spell and was rewarded with the wickets of Waters and Brewster in quick succession. Green was batting well, although the loss of partners at regular intervals meant he had to temper his usual shot making in order to preserve his wicket. A partnership with Marzook Mohana looked promising but once again the Tartars bowlers managed to winkle out a batsman to nulify any threat. Green eventually feel to the guile of Bharat Gohel, caught on the long-off boundary (at the bowling green end) with his score on 99. Bharat cleaned up the tail and Tartars had an emphatic victory.

At KCC: Tartars 280-5 (A Correa 65, A Nainani 46, TR Kalyanaraman 39, S Lama 31, F Saeed 45) beat Crusaders 211-9 (D Green 99; S Dukande 3-41, B Gohel 3-23) by 69 runs

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Saracens v. Gap Ramblers at Mission Raod
Result: Saracens won by 18 runs

No report received.

At Mission Road: Saracens 290-2 (R Sharma 140, B Shroff 53, R Sujanani 78*) beat Gap Ramblers 272-6 (P Winchcomb 40, Dave Mallinson 95, Adam Smith 83) by 18 runs

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Round 17 - 2nd December 2000

Crusaders v. Islanders at KCC
Result: Crusaders lost by 54 runs

No report received.

At KCC: Islanders 171 (N Hameed 43; D Mohammed 5-31) beat Crusaders 117 (J Iqbal 5-11) by 54 runs

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Saracens v. St Georges at Mission Raod
Result: Saracens lost by 1 wicket

No report received.

At Mission Road: St George's 231-9 (B Sinniah 44, Nadum 91*; Z Vachha 3-30) beat Saracens 230-4 (R Sharma 111, B Shroff 37) by 1 wkt

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