Optimists wrap up Sunday League title

Hong Kong Cricket Club's Optimists have wrapped up the 2006-07 HKCA Sunday League title with three matches still to play following an impressive performance against Infidels in which Mark Fuzes smashed a big century and Chris Gillard claimed six wickets. Meanwhile Mark Kratzmann also hit a century in the Saturday League and Neisha Pratt added another ton to her list of honours in the HKCA Women's League.

A full round of seven matches were played in the 21st round of the 2006-07 HKCA Saturday League that saw a number of unexpected results.

Kai Tak featured in another high scoring match against a Hong Kong Cricket Club side and once again they came out on the wrong side of the ledger, this time against Gap Ramblers. On a day that saw a spate of high scoring, Gap Ramblers posted the highest team total of the day, scoring 289-2 from their 35 overs. Mark Kratzmann lead the assault with an unbeaten 127 while Jeremy Collard and Justin Pearce made useful contributions. Hamish Stuart also finished undefeated on 63. Kai Tak made a good effort with their reply but they ultimately fell 36 runs short, despite a fine 80 from Tiku Patidar. Scott Parker also scored 45 and Brett Morely hit 30, while Mark Kratzmann completed a fine day's work by claiming three wickets.

Nomads scored an equally impressive victory over Lamma at Po Kong Village Road Number 2 ground. Toby Brown top scored with 90 and Andrew Swan hit 55 as Nomads posted 233-6 from their 35 overs, while Tauseef Bukhari grabbed three wickets for Lamma. Tauseef then hit 88 as Lamma reach 183 all out in reply. Mal Costain picked up three wickets for Nomads.

It wasn't all good news for HKCC as Laguna Gully beat Witherers in another high scoring match played at Mission Road. Witherers batted first and posted 248-5 from their 35 overs, with Phil Pemberton top scoring with 90 while Ken Thiedeman scored 58 and Bob Bettridge finished unbeaten on 31. Anand Ramaswamy picked up three wickets for Laguna Gully. Ravi Desai scored 68 and Virendra Dhir hit 42 while Shekhar Sharma finished undefeated on 47 not out as Laguna Gully eased to victory by four wickets.

LSW Warriors kept their noses in front at the top of the Saturday League points table with a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Police at the Police Training College in Aberdeen. Tabarak Dar claimed three wickets as Police were restricted to 141-8 from their 35 overs. Unbeaten forties from Azhar Illahi and Zain Abbas saw the Warriors home for the loss of just two wickets.

Hong Kong's up and coming players enjoyed a double success as both the Hong Kong Under-19s and Mainlanders both scored victories over their Kowloon Cricket Club opponents.

At Kowloon Cricket Club, the Hong Kong Under 19s scored a 41-run victory over Crusaders. The Under 19s batted first and posted a competitive 243-5 from their 35 overs with Irfan Ahmed top scoring with 76 while Jamie Atkinson finished unbeaten on 54. Crusaders were then dismissed for 202 in reply, with Damian Kelleher and Marzook Mohanna both hitting half centuries. Zafaran Ali picked up three wickets while Nadeem Ahmed mopped up the tail in a seven over spell that claimed four wickets.

Mainlanders scored their fourth victory of the season as they beat Saracens by three wickets at the Po Kong Village Road Number One ground. Saracens batting woes continued as they could only muster a total of 125 with Burji Shroff the only batsman to offer any resistance with 46. In reply, Mainlanders lost seven wickets in the run chase but they were brought home by Waqas Barkat who finished unbeaten on 59 not out.

Related Links:

Optimists wrapped up the Sunday League title with three matches still to play as they beat Infidels in a high scoring match at Po Kong Village Road. Mark Fuzes led from the front with a blistering 178 while Mark Eames hit 34 and Shane Sibraa scored 86 as Optimists posted a massive 349-3 from 49 overs. Infidels made a good fist of their run chase, but the efforts of Rob Taylor (71), Ravi Sujanani (90) and Courtney Kruger (37) were in vein as they were dismissed for 290 off 45 overs. Chris Gillard grabbed the best bowling performance of the weekend, claiming 6-58 in an eleven over spell.

Scorpions assisted their club mates towards the title by beating second-placed Little Sai Wan in a tense match at Hong Kong Cricket Club that finished in controversial fashion with the players and officials poring over the rulebooks. Little Sai Wan batted first and scored 196 from 47 overs; their total being boosted by the award of a five run penalty. LSW's young guns - Irfan Ahmed (30), Zain Abbas (40) and Nadeem Ahmed (34) - provided the guts of LSW's batting effort while Phil Pemberton grabbed four wickets and Simon Laveau claimed three wickets for Scorpions. In reply, Scorpions were teetering on 171-9 after Pemberton had scored 39 and Mark Kratzmann hit 46 while Zain Abbas picked up four wickets for LSW. But when time was called by the umpires at 5:20PM, LSW had only bowled 45 overs. Two overs were given for good cause and therefore LSW were three overs short of the mark at the close. LSW's top ten scoring overs accounted for 102 runs so the average of each over unbowled reduced ten runs from the score. Scorpions revised target was therefore set at 166 (being 196 minus 30) and having reached 171-9 at the close, Scorpions were awarded the match by one wicket.

Things were more clear-cut at Mission Road where Pakistan Association thumped Vagabonds by nine wickets. Vagabonds batted first but were dismissed for just 131 in 30 overs with Butt Hussain claiming four wickets and Ilyas Gul gabbing three. For Vagabonds, Prashant Ganggadhara top scored with 52. The Pakistan Association batsmen had little trouble knocking off the required runs in double quick time as they raced to 132-1 off just 11.1 overs, with Najeeb Amar smashing 87.

Congratulations to Optimists - HKCA Sunday League Champions for 2006-07!

Related Links:

Neisha Pratt scored her second century in as many weeks as Lamma defeated LSW by 73 runs in the HKCA Women's Cricket League. Lamma batted first and scored an impressive 236-3 from their 35 overs with Pratt scoring 135 and Sam McIlwraith hitting unbeaten 61. In reply, LSW finished on 163-6 with Keanu Gill scoring 55, while McIlwraith claimed three wickets to round off a great all round performance.

Related Links: