Seychelles Cricket Association squad visit Maritius (19 Nov 1999)

19 November 1999

Seychelles Cricket Association squad visit Maritius

Seychelles Cricket Association secretary, Mike Holmes, reports on the Seychelles' annual visit to Mauritius and the latter stages of the domestic competition.

"The Seychelles Cricket Association squad returned home this week from their annual exchange visit with Maurindia Cricket Club of Mauritius. Having won the two home games in June, hopes were high for a first ever away victory but despite all their efforts on the pitch the Seychelles team lost both games and had to be contented with sharing this year's honours with Maurindia.

The first game of the series in Mauritius was the Air India Challenge Cup played at the Gymkhana Club in Vacoas. Maurindia won the toss and elected to bat first on a beautiful wicket. After a steady start by the opening pair, Deepak made the first breakthrough for Seychelles, having Roshan caught by Dewapriya with the score on 26. Ravi Chetty soon added another wicket, pinning Mhaske leg before and Maurindia reached 50 for the loss of Rohit, well caught by Vinod off Ravi Chetty. At the half way mark of the 35 over innings, Chandre had Patel caught by Patrick Thomas to leave Maurindia on 62-4 wickets. In the second half, however, Maurindia upped the tempo with the ever dangerous Sood starting to hit the ball around. Shoaib was run out with the score at 98, but the bowlers were now struggling to contain Sood and Nagesh. Seychelles captain Muditha made an inspired bowling change with the score at 120, bringing on Phil Weddell who struck with his very first delivery to have Sood (36) caught by Chandre. At 143, two more wickets fell as Ismael was caught by Vinod off another Weddell delivery and Anil was run out. The last over saw Nagesh (32) stumped by K. Patel to give Weddell his third victim, but Maurindia reached an impressive 154-9.

The Seychelles reply got off to a bad start when Hammersley was bowled by Sood in the second over. Captain Muditha was just getting into his stride and had reached 21 with some fine boundaries when he was run out attempting a risky single. Vinod (10) was bowled by Roshan with the total at 45 and K. Patel (13) perished ten runs later when he was caught behind off the same bowler. Senerath (5) was run out with the score on 68 and with 15 overs remaining, Seychelles needed almost six runs an over for victory with five wickets in hand. The next five overs proved to be the best spell for Seychelles as they kept up with the required run rate thanks to some fine batting by Deepak, which included a magnificent six back over the bowler's head. When Deepak departed, caught and bowled by Roshan for a top score of 31, Seychelles were handily placed one run short of the century mark. Unfortunately the tail could not wag very effectively as Weddell (6) was stumped off a Patel delivery, Patrick Thomas (2) was run out, Ravi Chetty (5) was adjudged leg before to Patel and Dewapriya was caught by Desai off another Patel delivery. This left Chandre undefeated on 2 and Seychelles all out for 111, producing a comfortable victory for Maurindia.

Ravi Chetty lead Seychelles out on the second day to play for the Indian Oil Cup, won the toss and elected to bat. Suludagoda was an early victim for Rohit, but Vinod struck back with a huge six off the same bowler to give some encouragement to the visitors before he was bowled for 12 by Patel. Patrick Thomas then had the misfortune to be run out for the second time in two days following a mix up with Muditha, who in turn went for 14 when he was bowled by Patel.

Seychelles advanced the scoreboard slowly to reach 60 in the twentieth over before losing Weddell (7) bowled by Desai. Soon after, Roshan looked to be very unlucky when given LBW to his Maurindian namesake Roshan. Deepak played a much more controlled innings on the second day, compiling 26 runs before being bowled by Patel with the score on 82. K. Patel played very well for 19 before being caught by Jerome off Sood, Bertram (8) was run out attempting to force the pace and Ravi Chetty smashed 14 runs off just eight deliveries, including a splendid six before being out in the last over when bowled by Roshan. This left Dewapriya two not out and Seychelles posted a highly respectable total of 123.

The Maurindia reply got off to an explosive start with three boundaries in the very first over. They advanced to 26 before Roshan struck to have Mhaske (16) smartly caught behind by K.Patel. Some very steady batting took Maurindia to 63 before Patel (19) was trapped LBW by Dewapriya. From this point on, the batsmen were always in control and despite trying several bowling changes Seychelles were unable to make the breakthrough. Maurindia's Roshan compiled a superb innings of 57 not out, and with the aid of an undefeated 29 by Rohit, the home side cruised to victory with five overs to spare.

At the presentation awards evening held at the residence of the Indian High Commissioner, His Excellency Cassam Uteem, President of the Republic of Mauritius warmly thanked the Seychelles team for their efforts in providing two days of entertaining cricket and looked forward to continuing exchange visits between the two island nations.

Maurindia skipper Bhagirath collected the Air India Cup and the Indian Oil Cup from the President, who also handed over Man of the Match awards to Sood for the first game and Roshan for the second game. Patel was nominated as Maurindia's Player of the Series, and Deepak deservedly collected the Seychelles Player of the Series Award.

This was a very enjoyable tour despite the two losses, with some fine cricket played by both teams in the true spirit of the game. The emergence of several younger players in the Seychelles side bodes well for the future and having ended even over the four games of 1999, we look forward to next year's encounters with renewed confidence. A final word of thanks to those who assisted with sponsorship for the Seychelles Cricket Association tour:- Mason's Travel.

The Mohan Shopping Centre Cup, in which all six cricket teams play each other on a league basis with the top two sides meeting in the final, is heading for a very exciting finish. The last two games have decided the fate of two teams, but the other four still have everything to play for.

Barclays Eagles and Youngstars met last week in a game that both teams desperately needed to win. The Eagles welcomed back Nigel Hall, a former star player who is visiting Seychelles on holiday from the UK prior to taking up a new job in San Francisco. The game was also saw the last appearance in a Barclays shirt for Andy Jinman of Seychelles Breweries who has been promoted to a new position based in London.

After winning the toss, the Eagles set off at a cracking pace, reaching 60 in the tenth over, but losing Muditha (4), Jinman (3) and Sunil (18) along the way. A partnership of 44 between Hall and Hammersley looked set to guide the Barclays side to a huge total, but when Hall went for 12 and Hammersley for 28, Youngstars fought back well to restrict the batting side to 104 all out in just 20 overs. Faruk returned figures of 4-13, ably supported by Roshan with 3-28 and Krishantha with 2-17.

One of the deciding factors in the final league standings may well be net run rate, and Youngstars decided to go for a blitzkrieg approach when it was their turn to bat. Hamid cracked a fine six but was out immediately afterwards, LBW to Mervyn. Roshan picked up three boundaries on his way to 23 before falling LBW to Hammersley, but the star of the Youngstars show was captain Faruk, who blasted four fours and three sixes in an explosive undefeated innings of 39. Youngstars reached the victory target in just 12 overs and two balls, giving them a huge boost in net run rate in addition to the two points for victory.

This week's game featured Mahe Kings and Airtel, with Mahe Kings electing to bat after winning the toss. Senerath (17) and Rose-Innes (11) got the Kings off to a good start, but wickets fell at a fairly alarming rate following the drinks interval, with only Nishan Burhan (17) reaching double figures amongst the rest of the batsmen. Mahe Kings were therefore very grateful for the 45 extras served up by Airtel which allowed them to post a total of exactly 100 in their 25 over allocation. Dr. Singh was the pick of the Airtel bowling with 3-16, whilst Jayan and Jayanthi picked up two wickets apiece.

The Airtel reply got off to the worst possible start in the face of some fine bowling, from Rose- Innes and Nishan, losing Rangasamy, Anupam and Sanjeev all for ducks. The middle order fought back well, with Jayanthi making 24 and Deepak 29 to offer Airtel some hope, but Senerath with 3-6 and John Khambatta with 3-8 destroyed Airtel's hopes, reducing them to 81 all out by the sixteenth over.

These results produce the following Mohan Cup League Standings:-

Team Played Won Points Net Run Rate Luckstars 4 4 8 + 5.477 Mahe Kings 5 3 6 + 0.650 Youngstars 4 2 4 + 1.933 Playfair 4 2 4 - 1.520 Airtel 5 1 2 - 1.290 Barclays Eagles 4 1 2 - 4.635

Luckstars are therefore confirmed as one of the finalists, with Airtel and Barclays Eagles definitely eliminated. Next weekend, Playfair meet Youngstars, so one of these two teams will reach six points to be level with Mahe Kings. Net run rate will decide league positions where points are level, so the situation is that a win for Youngstars will put them in the final, a victory by Playfair by a very wide margin could put them in the final, whilst Mahe Kings must hope for a win by Playfair in a very close contest."