|
Club News
Halton
Stars C.C. emerge victorious in a nail-biting finish
againt BSCC-A
Etobicoke, June 5, 2010.
Varun
Sheth.
HSCC led by
Farid Siddiqui, won the toss and elected to bat first
againt BSCC-A. HSCC got off to aslow start and lost
their first wicket when Owais Arif (5) got a leading
edge on an attempted flick shot and spooned a simple
catch to short mid-on. Varun Sheth (7) skied one to
cover which brought two new men to the crease. Khalid
Gilani (7) and Irfan Arab (1) were caught behind soon
after. Sultan Malik and Muhammad Haroon then began
rebuilding the innings. Both batsmen cut out all risks
and runs came only in singles, but more importantly, no
wickets were lost. Haroon edged to slip on 15 just when
he was beginning to find his groove.
Bilal Arif,
hampered by an injury brought some urgency to the
innings, but was bowled at 13. Sultan at the other end
looked solid and kept on rotating the strike. The 100
came up in the 38th over. Sher Khan (0) was
involved in a run out after which Sultan was brilliantly
caught at point for a crucial 39. Sikander Sheikhani (0)
didn’t get going and the last pair of Kaleem Arif (1)
and Farid Siddiqui (2) found themselves at the crease.
HSCC’s innings folded at a below-par 116 when Kaleem was
adjudged leg before. Alvin Singh (5 wkts) was the pick
of HSCC’s bowlers followed by Kevin Singh with 2
wickets. Wilfrid Mohabir and James Mohabir picked up one
wicket apiece. HSCC crossed the 100 run mark largely due
to Sultan’s fine innings of 39. HSCC had to bowl and
field out of their skins to win this game.
Sher and
Sultan began the proceedings for HSCC. Sultan sent back
opener Kevin Singh (4) & then Wilfrid Mohabir (3) in
quick succession. Jonathan Mohabir at the other end
threatened an early finish with some lusty hitting.
Farid then brought himself and Sikander on to bowl. Just
when BSCC were running away with the game, skipper Farid
picked up two wickets, James Mohabir & Mark Morris for 4
runs each.
The game
was evenly poised at the drinks break, but HSCC struck
gold when Jonathan, dropped twice already skied Farid to
mid off for a well-compiled 43. HSCC were right back in
the game! BSCC needed 50 runs with 5 wickets in hand,
but were still the favourites as their batting ran very
deep. Sultan bowled a dream second spell with teasing
lines to induce mistakes from Paul (9) and Tony (1).
Farid kept the pressure on from the other end by some
fine cutters and Yorkers. Spin was introduced rather
late in the form of Irfan Arab and Kaleem Arif. Irfan
had Umair Ghani caught at cover for 8 and Kaleem Rampaul
(4) lbw in his first over. HSCC complicated matters by
dropping 2 crucial catches and BSCC were left with 5
runs to get with the last pair at the crease. John
Mohabir then hit Sher straight to mid on where Varun
completed a straightforward catch to win the match in
dramatic style by just 2 runs.
Despite
some dropped catches, HSCC didn’t panic and remained
calm. The players encouraged each other and played as a
unit to emerge victorious. Skipper Farid took 3 wickets
followed by Irfan, Sher and Kaleem with one wicket each.
Sultan Malik scalped 4 wickets to be the man of the
match. Owais, Khalid and Varun took some good catches in
the infield.
|
