Round 9 - Sunday, 23rd November 2003
Templars v. Pakistan Association at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Templars won by 19 runs
This game was won on our openers performance (Rahul & Ravi) and the performance of the team as a whole in the field. The Pakistan Association are dangerous to a man and as it proved nearly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Having arrived at the ground to make sure all was in readiness I was alarmed to see the wicket was a) not bouncing and b) had a substantial grass cover. The arrival of Barney well before the start was also alarming, as well as Devang, Zubs and Jammie who must have warmed up for nearly a full hour before the start. They, as all the rest of us knew the importance of this fixture and what was required if we were to win. Having only been on one winning side in 5 season against these terrors (which I am sure was the same for many of us in the team) was incentive enough!
Unfortunately the plan of calling wrongly at the toss (it was the Pakistan Association's home game) so they could make the tough decision, didn't work and so working on the idea that it was better to have runs on the board Templars batted. Rahul and Ravi the stalwarts of the side, as well as the National Team, opened against Khalid and the revitalised Salim Malik. There were games within games as this was the first time Khalid had had the opportunity to impress Rahul with his bowling and impress Clive Howard (who was umpiring both ends – thanks again Clive) with his change attitude since the final of the Tunku Jaffa in Malaysia in September. With no amount of skill, and the fact that Khalid was presumably more preoccupied in proving a point than bowling his trademark inswinging yorkers, he was warned by Clive from running down the track and finally removed after 7 overs. Salim proved difficult to get away especially on a grassy wicket that was slow and stopping. Progress was slow as the bowling and the field setting was good with the wicket making stroke play difficult. At first breaks with all wickets still in hand we were approximately 70. Some acceleration did occur with the introduction of their array of spinners which was some achievement on a substantially turning wicket. Finally a break through for the bowlers was achieved in the 36 th over at 133 when Rahul was caught at long off chasing a Saikat leg spinner. At this stage we were still hoping to post 230 or 240 and with his mind the Captain promoted both Jammie and Barney for acceleration purposes. Regrettably neither of them could produce the goods with poor old Barney brilliantly run out by the Bengal Tiger Saikat. TR strode to the wicket and with Ravi (still playing well) added useful runs, however the overs were running out and we were still short of the 200 mark. Khalid returned and was warned again for running on the wicket!!! Ravi was finally stumped which was a tame dismissal considering he grafted for some 44 overs for his 73, still it turned out to be a match winning performance. After a number attempts at hitting the leg spinner out of the ground and getting stumped we ended the innings at 209 and about 20 to 30 short. Critically the bowling side had been slow and were only going to receive 48 overs.
The Pakistan Association obviously thought we too should share in their fasting as they forgot to order any lunch!!! Needless to say the KCC kitchen did us proud in double quick time and we were out on the field at 14:25 to commence are attempt to limit their fluent batsman.
Najeeb obviously pick the right approach from the start, ie., swinging at anything up or on the leg side which proved to be an effective approach though he did have his chances. Nasir didn't last long, LBW to a beauty of an off-cutter from Zub, however Ilyas and Najeeb added 50 for the second wicket in good time (at seven an over) until Ilyas was out to one of those notable pieces of thought and skill that we have been witness to this season. Last ball of the over Zub's requests a gully, Barney is moved, Zub's bowled exactly the right ball and Barney takes a good catch, Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?! At the other end Jammie (bowled well) was replaced by Mustafa (who was finding fasting an understandable drain which showed in his bowling) and then by Ravi bowling offspin after a fashion, but good enough to claim both Malik and Imtiaz with a full bunger and a long hop (look in the book) respectively. With Rahul on at the other end and claiming Jamshaid, Rafaqat and finally Najeeb who was also suffering from fasting, the Pakistan Association were in trouble at 118 for 7. Luck would have it the aforementioned Bengal Tiger Saikat San stepped up to plate ably supported by Azam's brother and another ex-KCC member, namely Iftikhar. The score slowly crept towards the required total and nerves were fraying both on and off the field. Finally Rahul enticed Saikat into a long on biff which was brilliantly caught by Jammie leaving the opposition at 177 for 8. The final wickets were claimed by Jammie coming back at the top end and further ruining Kahlid's day by getting him LBW, much to his delight, and Zubair yorking the new import.
These tight games must be won if we are to have the chance of winning the league and so it is a testament to the team that everyone played their part in the win. Tremendous batting from Rahul and Ravi, and TR later on supported by most of the bowlers and the fielders. It is a mark of a winning championship side that if one department falters others make up the difference. With Little Sai Wan also losing are lead has increased, but this is not to say that we must relax. Winning, as I have said, is a habit and it is a habit that we must continue. Well done guys.
Thanks for Jenny for scoring for us and unlike Optimists she is a good talisman for the Templars. At Kowloon Cricket Club: Templars 209-8 (R Sharma 63, R Sujanani 73, T R Kalyanaraman 32; Saikat Sen 10-0-53-5) beat Pakistan Association 191 (N Amir 79, Saikat Sen 36; M Zubair 11.4-2-46-4, R Sharma 13-1-40-4) by 19 runs
[Top]
Round 8 - Sunday, 16th November 2003
Infidels v. Optimists at Hong Kong Cricket Club
Result: Infidels lost by 5 wkts
At Hong Kong Cricket Club: Optimists 189-5 (M Eames 34, D Alex 62*) beat Infidels 185 (D Kelleher 57, T Bukhari 30; P Watkins 13-2-38-6) by 5 wkts [Top]
Templars v. Scorpions at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Templars won by 8 wkts
After a bloodless coup before the game, when Anurag graciously stepped aside as captain (much I know to his relief) the new Captain lost his first toss of the year and JP decided to bat on a wicket that looked as if it would break up and play low later in the day. Both incidences happened but neither did us much harm.
The lure of breakfast brought the two 'brothers' Zubair and Jammie to the ground an hour before the start, however Jammie preferred to be on his own. Despite this, we still ended up with only ten on the field at the start of the game as Barney was still having his own form of breakfast in bed at the time!!! The brothers opened and both bowled well with Jammie certainly showing an improvement on recent weeks. Martin Lever was bowled by Zubair's off-cutter and poor old Ryan Eagleson was out for a duck to Jammie's excellent off-cutter, which umpire Lou ("mines a pint") took an age to decide upon. With no Smarty (elbow buggered) and Mallow (watching rugby in Sydney) and with JP retiring hurt with a torn thigh muscle, their batting was thin. Only the balding Brooks showed any defiance, although he did himself no favours by running out the dangerous Tina Brown. All the other Scorpions' batsmen (except No.9) made less than double figures - the zero before a single integer doesn't count by the way. Jammie and Zubs were rested at the first drinks break - both having bowled well (Jammie 9 overs for 22 and Zubs 8 overs for 22 - it's always a good idea to make your employer look good at times!!). Rahul and Devang took over with immediate success as Norry decided to try and hit his way out of trouble only to be stumped off Rahul. He was quickly followed by Brooks, who had played well for his forty odd, but was left ruing not picking Rahul's quick flipper. He was followed next ball by Gops, who said later he hadn't been out in the middle for ages (that could be centuries for mere mortals like us) and had lost his touch. The unfortunate Vera (was a male by the way) was brilliantly run out by Ravi with a direct hit from wide mid-off and the proceedings were finished off by Mustafa with two excellent off-cutters - he is increasingly becoming the man to go to when it is time to wrap things up! Clinical, professional and downright smiley cricket by the Templars!!!
As the Scorpions' innings finished at 12:50 we decided to bat and try and get the runs before lunch. To get the maximum 20 points we had to get the runs in the 18 th over and this was achieved easily in the 16 th over. The Captain opened with Rahul, with the former suffering another Lou 'the finger' decision (I'll cut them off if he gives me out again). However, this was only a precursor to another short but masterful display of power hitting from Jammie (sent up the order to guarantee maximum points). Once again the ball flew all over the ground, crossing the boundary at alarming speed much to the delight of all of us and especially Rahul who was wetting himself at the other end of the pitch. Eventually Jammie got a yorker but his rapid 35 had gone along way to securing maximum points. With Rahul still playing well, the 'coming back into form' Barney strode to the wicket with purpose and preceded to smack two nice trademark sixes onto the KCC Coffee Shop thus ensuring victory was achieved and lunch could be taken just after 14:00.
Well done again boys, but as ever we must not relax as it is probably the biggest match of the league next week against the Pakistan Association.
At Kowloon Cricket Club: Templars 105-2 (R Sharma 39*, M Jamshaid 35) beat Scorpions 101 (S Brooks 43; R Sharma 9-1-24-3) by 8 wkts [Top]
Round 7 - Sunday, 9th November 2003 Infidels
v. Templars at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Templars won by 7 wickets
After a wet patch was found on the prepared grass wicket on cover removal, it was deemed that the artificial would have to be played on. A number of phone calls from players, on both sides, who were still in bed and hoping this would continue so, were grossly disappointed to find themselves having to arise from their prospective pits and make there way to the KCC for the derby game on a wet and threatening Sunday morning. I fear Johnners would have found little to talk of including the weather at such a prospect.
Needless to say the Captain's decisions to play on a perfectly safe and relatively dry outfield and wicket block paid off as only two drizzely periods occurred during the day, and we once again witness another awesome display from Zubair. May be it was the fact that the airport job was still continuing requiring Zubair (part of Jammie's work force) to erect and dismantle countless scaffold platforms (during the night) which give him the strength of body, or perhaps that the self proclaimed best bowler in Hong Kong, messers Khalid Khan, was back playing from his international ban, spurned him on to produce another "I was there" spell of unchanged bowling.
Having won another toss, the Captain had no option but to insert the opposition considering the potential for weather interruption. Jammie, Zub and Barneyless we started with 8 and opened with Mustafa and Ravi. On reaching our full compliment Ravi was replaced (2 overs for 2, and 2 too many for the old carthorse's body, well bowled), however Mustafa was once again proving a handful and was continued. Whether this ruffled Zub's feathers one can only postulate, as when he did get onto bowl (after 5 overs of Mustafa) he was unplayable. Mojo was good enough to get an edge (taken nicely by Rahul at first slip) and the slip cordon (three and a gully) were increasingly getting nervous as Zub's pace increased while his outswingers went further. For much of his 13 overs on the trot he bowled with an 8:1 field with only the keen Azam in front of square on the leg side. It then is amazing the control that Zub's had that his figures were 5 for 30 apart from the fact he had little sleep !!! Truly a spell that all in the grips saw first hand and could only applaud. Regular wickets fell and it was only Killer and Nicholas Lau who showed any grit in the batting. Mustafa returned and claimed Killer and Willow (both bowled) and continues to bowl well with great variety and sense and General Sharma picked up his usual two wickets, one courtesy of a TR stumping. Azam again bowled wides and then preceeded to castle young Lau with another straight one. Eventually the end came early at 133 and at 1:00pm.
The umpires (obviously thinking about the upcoming rugby) made us bat first before lunch. Getting runs off the other end that Afzaal wasn't bowling at was always the plan, especially if we were to get maximum points. Willow was the unfortunate bowler whose three overs cost 30 runs and was not seen again. Afzaal did bowl some unplayable balls and wides in between, however El Captaino did manage to edge to Oscar behind the sticks, relatively early on, but with a small Cameo from Ravi we were never in trouble. Rahul found his form and was just past fifty when he played a loose shot and was caught in the slips. By this time Barney had joined Rahul and his promise to the Captain of not playing his wicket giving away swipe to leg was upheld (he kept it in the bag until later). Afzaal was seen off (who was surely taken off to early, as he was the only one who look like taking wickets) and Barney then preceeded to take Imran to task by the use of Imi's own bat. His first four in two months (actually beating his collective total of runs in the same period) was nearly singled 4 leg byes, but Barney's emotional plee to Clive Howard at the bowlers ended in the positive and he was granted a reprieve from a night in the cells, again, by the Superintendent who graciously changed his mind. This spurned Barney on and maximum points were gained in the 22 nd over as Barney smotted two sixes off Imi, with the afore mentioned bowlers bat to finish off another good win.
A viewing of the Sunday League Table sees us at the top by three points. This is the first time a KCC side has been in such a position for years and it is essential that the momentum his kept up. The spirit is there and we have the habit of winning in us, well done boys!!
- Jards At Kowloon Cricket Club: Templars 136-3 (R Sharma 51, A Barnet 30*) beat Infidels 133 (N Lau 35; M Zubair 13-2-30-5) by 7 wkts
[Top]
|