Saturday Championship
Saturday Championship Division 1
HKCC Gap Ramblers v KCC Saracens
At Hong Kong Cricket Club, HKCC Gap Ramblers left it late to beat KCC Saracens.
Saracens won the toss and elected to bat first and had Saumil Shah (49) and Simondeep Singh (68) to thank for them reaching their total of 7/182 from 35 overs. In reply, Gap Ramblers lost both openers with only 23 runs on the board but a third wicket partnership of 135 runs between David Varley (59) and George Clarke (73) got them close and they eventually achieved their victory with four balls and six wickets to spare.
At HKCC: KCC Saracens 7/182 from 35 overs lost to HKCC Gap Ramblers 4/184 from 34.2 overs by six wickets.
KCC Tartars v KCC Crusaders
In the last derby match of the season at Kowloon Cricket Club, KCC Tartars beat KCC Crusaders by 55 runs.
Saeed Farooq was the only batsman to master the green tinged wicket and his innings of 53 was the stand out batting performance from either side as Tartars reached 8/155 from their 35 overs. Tartars’ bowlers then bossed the second innings with Afzaal Haider claiming 4/30 from 5.2 overs while Ateeq Ul-Rehman (3/26) and Waqar Dawood (3/20) also got into the wickets.
At KCC: KCC Tartars 8/155 from 35 overs beat KCC Crusaders 100 from 29.2 overs by 55 runs.
Saturday Championship Division 2
Lamma v USRC/MCC
At PKVR Park, Lamma scored a bonus point victory over USRC/MCC.
Lamma elected to bowl first after winning the toss and they reduced USRC/MCC to 3/34 after opener Syed Ibraz hit 31 of those runs. Sikandar Zafar (40) then dominated a 61-run fourth wicket partnership that got the score to 4/95 before another flurry of wickets saw them slump to 6/97. USRC/MCC, still going at a rate of knots, were eventually dismissed for 123 in just 18.3 overs. Brenton McDonald was Lamma’s chief destroyer, claiming 6/20 from 4.3 overs.
Lamma got off to a solid start in the second innings with the openers putting on 58. Haider Bukhari was first wicket to fall, having scored 30. Ian Beck followed with a fine 50 as Lamma reached 5/108. It was a proud day for the McDonald clan as the father and son combination of Royce and Brenton saw Lamma home in the 24th over for their fourth win of the season. Usman Mohammad was the best of the USRC/MCC bowlers, claiming 3/16 in five overs.
At PKVR Park: USRC/MCC 123 from 18.3 overs lost to Lamma CC 6/124 from 24 overs by four wickets.
DLSW Spartans v CCC Hung See
There was another bonus point victory at the Police Training College in Aberdeen where DLSW Spartans defeated CCC Hung See 88 runs. Spartans’ opener Haseeb Muhammad dominated proceedings with a fine 115 as they posted a score of 204 all out in 35 overs. Twelve-year-old Dhruv Sodhi claimed the bowling honours for Hung See with 5/40 from seven overs.
Hung See got away to a slow but steady start and they looked well placed to push on after reaching 1/46. However, a mini-collapse saw them slip to 4/51 and from there they never recovered. Hung See’s middle and lower order batsmen managed to see out the 35 overs as they totaled 6/116. Hari Virani (3/21) was the best of the bowlers for Spartans.
At PTC: DLSW Spartans 204 from 35 overs beat CCC Hung See 7/116 from 35 overs by 88 runs.