Round 21 - 25th January 2003

Saracens v.Crusaders at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Saracens won by 5 wkts

Charity begins at Home

Saracens scored a controversial victory over Crusaders at KCC on 25th January after an umpiring decision virtually gifted them the game.

Crusaders’ inability to get 11 players on the field, which has plagued the team throughout the season, was again evident with only 8 players ready to go at the start of play. Throughout the course of the game their numbers swelled to 10 but for a derby game played at KCC it is a sad reflection on a team that has otherwise enjoyed a good spirit and has played some respectable cricket.

Crusaders won the toss and elected to bat first. Manoj and Damian opened the batting and got off to their usual cautious start. The score ticked along quite nicely for the first ten overs, thanks in no small part to the succession of wides and no-balls delivered by Jamshaid and Zubair, who were bowling with good pace but poor direction. Manoj fell first after a well-struck 26, but he would have been disappointed not to go on to a bigger score having done the hard work to establish his innings. Travis joined the fray and immediately looked in good touch, striking a couple of boundaries straight down the ground. Unfortunately he lost his patience after being tied down for a few overs by Tauseef and Yogi and perished with his score also on 26. Damian meanwhile was slowing accumulating runs at the other end at a pedestrian pace that was now putting pressure on the incoming batsmen. Graeme provided the perfect foil as his aggressive approach helped up the ante and the score accelerated dramatically.

Come the 33rd over and Crusaders were strongly placed at 219-2 with batsmen scoring freely – Damian on 78 and Graeme on 40 – and ready to launch into a final onslaught on the bowling. A score of 240+ looked likely.

It was here that the game was swung firmly back in Saracens favour. With 3:30PM showing on the clock, the umpires decided to call Crusaders innings to a close. Through wides and no-balls, Saracens bowlers had delivered an extra 21 balls, conceding a staggering 39 runs. However by not having to bowl their last 2 overs, they were not punished for their indiscretions and Crusaders were deprived batting in the ‘slog overs’ with 2 batsmen well set and plenty of wickets in hand.

Why am I so aggrieved? Well for starters the rules on such matters state that “If, without good cause, the bowling side fails to complete 35 overs within the scheduled time, the innings shall be extended until 35 overs are completed and the second innings restricted to the number of overs completed at the scheduled time.” Whilst the decision to stop at 33 overs was done in the spirit of a derby game, it was against the rules and clearly gave one side an unfair advantage.

Having said all that, credit must go to the Saracens players who batted well in their innings with Tauseef, Jamshaid and Zubair all hitting half centuries. However they also benefited from some very poor Crusaders fielding which saw no less than 8 catches put down (most of them VERY straightforward). Todd was the unluckiest of the Crusaders’ bowlers having at least three chances dropped off his bowling. Saracens reached their victory target in the 32nd over for the loss of 5 wickets.

One can only guess what another 20 runs would have made…

At Kowloon Cricket Club: Crusaders 219-2 (D Kelleher 78*, G Jardine 40*) beat Saracens 221-5 (T Bukhari 54, M Jamshaid 64, M Zubair 51) by 5 wkts

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Round 20 - 18th January 2003

Saracens v. Kai Tak at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Saracens lost by 113 runs

No report received.

At Kowloon Cricket Club: Kai Tak 243 (T Patidar 44, J Doubleday 30, M Brown 85, J Barrington 30; R Sujanani 4-47, T Bukhari 4-70) beat Saracens 130-8 by 113 runs

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Round 19 - 11th January 2003

Tartars v. SubCont CC at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Tartars won by 55 runs

A somewhat depleted Tartars, missing skipper TR, master blaster Rahul Sharma, in-form Anurag Bhatnagar, evergreen Eddie Tse and super all-rounder Aftab, hosted a Subcontinents 11 at KCC this weekend. With a line up full of latecomers the Tartars elected to bat first on the plastic wicket.

Openers Lama and Sandeep started well taking the score to 60 before Sandeep was out in the 12th over which sparked a mini collapse. Shortly thereafter Lama was out for a well-made 33, then Farooq was out quickly, bringing experienced pair and 2000/01 championship openers, Tony Correa and Anoop Narnani together. With the score at 60 for 3 in the 15th over the pair proceeded to add 102 for the 4th wicket by working singles and two's on the enlarged Cox's Road ground and taking advantage of some deteriorating bowling later on to smack boundaries to all parts of the ground. When Anoop was out in the 29th over in his 30s, the game was well within the Tartars control and thanks to some lusty late hitting from Uncle "B" Gohel with his trusty plank and a stubborn 90 not out from stand in skip Correa the Tartars were able to reach 227 for 6 in their allocated 35 overs.

In response the Subcontinent CC looked dangerous in the middle order but never looked capable of overtaking the target thanks in the main to some tight bowling by Papu with 3 for 31, Uncle B 3 for 40 and Lama 2 for 37. Azum and Sandeep also bowled well to keep the top order tied down. Special mention should go to Anoop who took 3 good catches, Kishore who took a screamer at point and Samir who took an excellent catch on the boundry from Uncle B's first ball long-hop. Also a warm welcome back to the cricket whites for Keith Lowcock who proved that the family wicket-keeping genes remain as strong as ever with a fine performance behind the stumps.

At Kowloon Cricket Club: Tartars 227-6 (A Correa 90*, S Lama 33; Gopal 3-41) beat SubCont CC 172 (Krishnan 52; P Butani 3-31, B Gohel 3-40) by 55 runs

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Saracens v. Police at Police Training School
Result: Saracens won by 8 wkts

No report received.

At Police Training School: Saracens 148-2 (T Bokhari 68*, N Savalani 50*) beat Police 147-6 (C Walton 30, N Hameed 35; Y Vachha 3-54) by 8 wkts

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Round 18 - 4th January 2003

Tartars v. St George's at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Tartars lost by 6 wkts

No report received.

At Kowloon Cricket Club: St George's 181-4 (G Ali 62, B Sinniah 56*) beat Tartars 178-9 (A Bhatnagar 80 (ret.), F Saeed 31; G Ali 3-39, S Tomer 3-55) by 6 wkts

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