KCC dominates inaugural Twenty20 competition
It was a red-letter day for KCC as they defied their recent league form to dominate the inaugural Twenty20 competition played at Kowloon Cricket Club in brilliant conditions on Monday, 30th January 2006.
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Facing Hong Kong Cricket Club in opening fixture, the KCC team looked to be on a hiding to nothing as they conceded 21 runs off the first over of the day, with Paul Watkins cashing in. But as the bowlers tightened their line, the batsmen were squeezed for runs and as more was pressure was exerted, the wickets began to fall. All the KCC bowlers grabbed wickets as HKCC were dismissed for 120 from their 20 overs. Top scorer for HKCC was Michael Jamieson who hit 28. Best of the bowlers was Skhawat Ali who claimed 3-16 from his allotted 4 overs, whilst Naeem Ashraf and Ravi Sujanani each claimed a brace.
KCC's reply got off to an emphatic start as Damian Kelleher smacked the first ball for six. In a blistering attack on all the HKCC bowlers, Kelleher smote seven sixes in his innings of 66 not out as KCC blazed away at nearly twelve runs an over. Kelleher's opening partner Coutney Kruger was equally devastating but he was bowled by Jamieson after reaching 26. Rahul Sharma came in and continued the assault and KCC reached their victory target in only 10.5 overs, for a thumping nine wicket victory. [Scorecard]
The KCC batsmen continued to thrash the ball around the ground in the second Twenty20 match played against the Independent Cricket Clubs Association (ICCA) XI. Ravi Sujanani opened up with an aggressive 46 that included a number of lofted shots back over the bowlers head. When he finally fell to the guile of Munir Dar, he was replaced by Naeem Ashraf who continued the onslaught. Ashraf's 45 came in double quick time with his preferred shot the big six over mid wicket. His innings was finally undone when he was stumped by Nasir Hameed off the bowling of Najeeb. All the while Rahul Sharma was maintaining a controlling hand at the other end, hitting the ball to the fence seemingly at will. His 68 represented the top individual score of the day as KCC blasted their way to 225-5 off their 20 overs. Najeeb Amar copped a fair share of the late innings hitting as his four overs cost a staggering 63 runs.
Needing the best part of 12 runs an over from the outset, the ICCA team required a strong start. That didn't materialise as Naeem Ashraf and Khuram Shahzad tied the batsmen down quite well in the early overs. Ashraf's two overs only conceeded nine runs, allowing Shahzad to attack the batsmen and claim the wickets. That he did as Nasir Hameed and Ankur Sharma both fell to catches behind the wicket. Hussain Butt tried to resurrect the innings with a few trademark shots down the ground but when he was cramped for room he could only lift the ball for an easy catch to mid wicket. Tabarak Dar was stroking the ball well and when he was joined by Irfan Ahmed, the two began to score quite freely, although by this time the asking rate had climbed to over 18 runs an over. Tabarak's dismissal for 40 signalled pretty much the end of proceedings but not before Tauseef Bukhari smashed a blistering 52 not out off only 16 balls as the KCC bowlers eased off the pressure. In the end, the ICCA team came up 18 runs short of their target with KCC bowlers Shahzad, Mehmood and Sujanani all claiming two wickets each. [Scorecard]
It was a magnificent day of power cricket, played in the best spirit by all the teams. We look forward to more of the same when KCC hosts the next Twenty20 fixtures during Easter 2006.
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