Western Flyers CC (174 for 5) beat
Sitting Ducks (109 all out) by 65 runs.
Western Flyers got their 2014 BAWA
cup campaign off to a strong start as they ran out comfortable winners against
a lacklustre Sitting Ducks side in their opening group A clash.
Having won the toss in gloomy and
somewhat drizzly conditions Western Flyers opted to bat first and openers
Shehan and Atiq cashed in straight away on some poor bowling and even poorer
fielding. With the run rate at almost 10 an over and the bowling looking
decidedly unthreatening a big total was starting to look certain, the only
opportunities coming from dropped catches as the batsmen tried to put pace on a
ball that was coming very slow off the wicket. Sitting ducks made the
breakthrough in the 6th over as Shehan played across the line to a
good ball and was bowled having scored a quick-fire 25 off 18 balls. As is
often the case one wicket quickly led to two with captain Atiq departing the
following over caught and bowled for 20 off 16 balls.
With the innings nicely set up
Oliver and Anu came to the crease and continued to score heavily, with the
total racing along as the miss-fields, dropped catches and extras started to
pile up. Both batsmen looked in good touch as they followed up their big
partnership in the warm up match last week against Bath Venturers with another
big stand here today. By the time they fell, again in quick succession, the
score was 130-4 with 6 overs remaining and a total in excess of 200 was looking
a realistic possibility. Oliver departed first for 27, bowled as he went for a
big heave across the line (any similarities to the shot Paul was motioning him
to play from the sidelines was purely coincidental) and two balls later Anu
holed out in the deep for 30, Sitting Ducks finally holding onto one after a
run of 6 dropped catches.
Thusitha and Nathan were the new
batsmen and the run rate slowed up briefly as both tried to play themselves in,
with Thusitha struggling to get his usual heavy scoring leg side game going and
instead bringing out some deft touches outside off. Nathan departed for 7, run
out following a rare piece of skilled fielding as he tried to follow up a
nicely struck boundary with a quick single. That brought Rony to the crease
just in time for a fine cameo to finish the innings, hitting 17 not out off 10
balls including a huge six over mid-on. The score of 174-5 from 20 overs was a
new club record.
In reply Sitting Ducks never really
threatened to make a game of it, opening bowler Yameen setting the tone for the
innings as he dismissed the opening batsman lbw with just the third ball.
Shehan opened up from the other end and picked up a wicket in his second over
leaving Sitting Ducks two down and already well behind the run rate. With
Yameen picking up another two wickets in a devastating third over, one bowled
and one caught by Thusitha at mid-wicket, the game was effectively over and
captain Atiq chose to give a few of the new squad members a chance to impress
with the ball.
Conditions were not favourable
though, with the cold making the ball very difficult to grip and the wind and
fading light not helping either. Suddenly the extras started to add up, Yameen
tired in his fourth and final over and bowled a few wides but more worryingly
picked up a back strain which the selectors will be hoping clears up quickly.
Siva came on for a bowl and had a tough time initially, opening up with 3 wides
but he bounced back admirably and started to find some good line and length. A
similar pattern played out for Ian from the other end who also started with a
couple of wides but picked up a wicket when he found his line and length and
the batsmen played all around it.
It was soon spin at both ends, Anu
picking up a wicket with his very first ball as Atiq pounced on a sharp chance
at square leg. He thought he had another soon afterwards, the whole team coming
together to celebrate as Nathan, who had kept wicket tidily throughout, whipped
off the bails with the batsmen seemingly well out of his ground. The umpire at
this point didn’t seem to be paying too much attention to the match and after a
brief delay he ruled it not out.
As the light continued to fade and
the coldness closed in it became clear that players from both teams just wanted
the match to end so they could get inside and warm up. The batsmen frustrated
Western Flyers for a few overs, not troubling the scorers too much but not
giving their wickets away either. Oliver and Rony both bowled a couple of overs
without reward and Thusitha, remodelled this season as a leg spinner, picked up
a wicket with the final ball of his two over spell. In the end it was Anu who
came back on to finish the job and picked up three more wickets, including a
sharp caught and bowled and knocking over the final batsmen with the last ball
of the match.
An easy win in the end for Western
Flyers who seem to have hit the ground running after making a slow start to the
tournament last year; however the fact that extras was the top scorer in both
innings shows that this wasn’t necessarily a match of the highest quality.
Still, as the saying goes, you can only beat what is in front of you. In the
other fixture played today group A favourites UNCC, conquerors of Western
Flyers in last year’s semi-final, suffered a shock defeat at the hands of
Knockout Knights. That result means that Western Flyers next match, against
UNCC on the 20th May, could turn out to play a very significant part
in the fight to get out of this group.
Match Report by Tim Fewster
Scorecard -
WFCC 175/5 (20 overs)
Sitting Ducks 109/10 (19.5 overs)
WFCC won by 65 runs
WFCC
Innings (20
overs maximum)
|
||||
Batsmen
|
Runs scored
|
How out
|
Bowler
|
Total
|
1 4 4 4 4
4 4
|
Bowled
|
Harish
|
25 (18)
|
|
Atiqur
Rahman
|
2 4 1 1 4
4 4
|
Caught
|
Senthil
|
20 (16)
|
Oliver
McCambridge
|
4 1 1 1 2
1 2 1 1 4 1 1 6 1
|
Bowled
|
David
|
27 (24)
|
Jude
Mudannayake
|
1 1 2 4 4
1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 1
|
Caught
|
David
|
30 (29)
|
Thusitha
Wickramasinghe*
|
1 1 1 1 1
1 2
|
NOT
|
OUT
|
8* (13)
|
1 1 1 4
|
Run
|
Out
|
7 (8)
|
|
Imdad
Khan (Rony)*
|
4 1 6 1 4
1
|
NOT
|
OUT
|
17* (10)
|
Ian
Randles
|
-
|
|||
Paul
Remfry
|
-
|
|||
Siva
Punniyakotti
|
-
|
|||
Yameen
Hussain
|
-
|
|||
Bowling
extras
|
No balls
|
2
|
||
Wides
|
26
|
|||
Fielding
extras
|
Byes and leg byes
|
12
|
||
Total extras
|
40
|
|||
Total
score
|
174
runs for 5 wickets, 20 overs
|
|||
Sitting Ducks Bowling (20 overs)
|
|||||||||
Bowlers
|
Over 1
|
Over 2
|
Over 3
|
Over 4
|
Overs
|
Maidens
|
Runs
|
Wickets
|
|
Senthil
|
7 runs
|
2 runs
|
4 runs
|
1 run,
W |
4
|
0
|
14
|
1
|
|
Prakash
|
18 runs
|
17 runs
|
2
|
0
|
35
|
0
|
|||
Harish
|
2 runs,
W |
4 runs
|
5 runs
|
9 runs
|
4
|
0
|
20
|
1
|
|
Mashud
|
23 runs
|
1
|
0
|
23
|
0
|
||||
David
|
10 runs
|
6 runs
|
2 runs,
WW |
3
|
0
|
18
|
2
|
||
Vishwa
|
12 runs
|
3 runs
|
2
|
0
|
15
|
0
|
|||
Raj
|
4 runs
|
4 runs
|
2
|
0
|
8
|
0
|
|||
Dinesh
|
12 runs
|
14 runs
|
2
|
0
|
26
|
0
|
|||
Sitting
Ducks Innings (Target
175 in 20.0 overs)
|
||||
Batsmen
|
Runs scored
|
How out
|
Bowler
|
Total
|
Vijay
|
1 1 1 1 1
1 1
|
Bowled
|
Shehan
|
7
|
Naveen
|
LBW
|
Yameen
|
0
|
|
Himanshu
|
1 1 1 1 1
1
|
Bowled
|
Yameen
|
6
|
David
|
4 1 1 1 1
4
|
Bowled
|
Ian
|
12
|
Mashud
|
Caught (Thusitha)
|
Yameen
|
0
|
|
Senthil
|
1 1 1 4 4
1
|
Caught (Atiq)
|
Jude
|
12
|
Harish
|
1 1 2 1 1
1 1 1 1 2
|
Bowled
|
Thusitha
|
12
|
Prakash
|
Bowled
|
Jude
|
0
|
|
Raj
|
1 1 1 1 4
1 1
|
Caught (Jude)
|
Jude
|
10
|
Dinesh*
|
1
|
NOT
|
OUT
|
1*
|
Vishwa
|
1 1 1
|
Bowled
|
Jude
|
3
|
Bowling
extras
|
No balls
|
5
|
||
Wides
|
33
|
|||
Fielding
extras
|
Byes + Leg byes
|
8
|
||
Total extras
|
46
|
|||
Total
score
|
109 runs for 10 wickets, 19.5
overs
|
|||
WFCC
Bowling (19.5 overs)
|
|||||||||
Bowlers
|
Over 1
|
Over 2
|
Over 3
|
Over 4
|
Overs
|
Maidens
|
Runs
|
Wickets
|
|
Yameen Hussain
|
5 runs, W
|
2 runs
|
2 runs, WW
|
6 runs
|
4
|
0
|
15
|
3
|
|
6 runs
|
1 run, W
|
2
|
0
|
7
|
1
|
||||
Siva
Ponniyakotti
|
11 runs
|
5 runs
|
2
|
0
|
16
|
0
|
|||
Oliver
McCambridge
|
11 runs
|
6 runs
|
2
|
0
|
17
|
0
|
|||
Jude Mudannayake
|
2 runs, W
|
7 runs
|
6 runs,
W |
0 runs
WW |
3.5
|
0
|
17
|
4
|
|
Ian Randles
|
6 runs, W
|
12 runs
|
2
|
0
|
18
|
1
|
|||
Thusitha Wickramasinghe
|
8 runs
|
6 runs, W
|
2
|
0
|
14
|
1
|
|||
Imdad
Khan (Rony)
|
6 runs
|
6 runs
|
2
|
0
|
12
|
0
|
|||
Match Detail
Toss - WFCC, elected to bat
Player
of the match - Jude Mudannayake
