Haider's hat-trick and Sharma's hundred the highlights of domestic cricket

Naeem Ashraf scored 112 not out for Saracens © HKCA

2005-06 HKCA Saturday League

Hundreds and hat-tricks were the order of the day in the 5th round of the 2005-06 HKCA Saturday League, which was played in hot and humid conditions on China's National Day - 1st October 2005.

Afzaal Haider celebrated his elevation to the captaincy of the Hong Kong team for the upcoming 2005 Cathay Pacific/Standard Chartered International Cricket Sixes by claiming five wickets (including a hat-trick) and hitting 81 not out as Tartars beat SubCont in a controversial match played at Po Kong Village Road. Both teams were guilty of wayward bowling (a staggering 66 wides were bowled) and the result had to be decided by run-rate calculations after the umpires called time, with Tartars declared the winners.

Former Pakistan international bowler Naeem Ashraf showed his class with the bat as he scored a century for Saracens against their KCC rivals Crusaders in a high-scoring match played at Kowloon Cricket Club. Batting first Saracens amassed 256-4 off 31 overs with Naeem hitting 112 not out. Crusaders made a good fist of their run-chase but came up 19 runs short in the end with Amjad Mehmood claiming 5-25 for Saracens and Anthony Barnet hitting an undefeated half century for Crusaders.

In another high scoring encounter, Mark Kratzmann hit a century as Gap Ramblers romped to a 102 run victory over Mainlanders at Hong Kong Cricket Club. The former Australian Davis Cup player showed his prowess with the willow by belting 137 runs against the hapless Mainlanders bowling attack. For the Mainlanders, Robbie Bacon scored 64 and Asad hit 62 not out.

Kai Tak crushed CCC by 133 runs in a another one-sided match played at Mission Road. The Kai Tak batsmen took no mercy on the CCC bowlers as they racked up a score of 232-9 with Adam Gunthorpe top-scoring with 44 whilst Todd Burgess claimed 4-39 for CCC. The CCC batsmen could only muster 99 runs in reply.

HKU notched their second win of the season as they beat MCC St George's by 4 wickets at the Sandy Bay ground. MCC St George's were skittled for 144 with Mohsen Hafeez claiming 4 wickets. In reply Khalid Qureshi scored a half century as the University reached their target for the loss of six wickets.

The 2005-06 HKCA Sunday League finally saw some action with two matches played on another day of hot and humid conditions that were briefly interrupted by a late afternoon thunderstorm.

At the Hong Kong Cricket Club, last season's wooden spooners Templars showed that they'll be a force to reckon with this season as they thumped Optimists by 154 runs. Batting first Templars scored a massive 305-5 with Rahul Sharma back to his best form, hitting an unbeaten 174. He received good support from Naeem Ashraf who scored 49. Afzaal Haider continued his good bowling form by claiming 5-21 as Optimists could only manage 151-9 in reply, with Aaron Stewart hitting a half century.

Millennium CC made they Sunday League debut when they took on Infidels at Kowloon Cricket Club. The Infidels batsmen took kindly to the Millennium attack as they scored 289-9 off their 50 overs with Manoj Cheruparabil (46), Roy Lamsam (72) and Nigel Shroff (66) all making impressions. Ahmed Dar was the stand-out bowler as he claimed the weekend's best return of 6-50. Millennium's reply got off to a bad start when they were docked 4 overs for a slow over-rate and their innings never got much momentum as they lost wickets at regular intervals. They were teetering at 177-9 when a thunderstorm blew over the KCC ground causing a brief interruption to proceedings. Thoughts of an unlikely victory were quashed shortly after the resumption with Infidels achieving a comfortable 71 run victory. Manoj Cheruparambil claimed 4-40 to round off a good match.

Action finally got underway in the 2005-06 HKCA Women's League with KCC Maidens facing the HKCC Willow Wielders at Mission Road. Batting first, the KCC women struggled in the warm conditions, reaching 118-7. Julie Atkinson top scored with 33 whilst Maggie Sung claimed 3-29 for the Willow Wielders. In reply, the HKCC team had reached 29-3 after 12 overs when the match was interrupted by the thunderstorm. Play was not able to resume and the KCC Maidens were awarded the victory thanks to their superior run-rate.