Twin centuries for Bobby as Royal march on in Cyprus cricket cup

By Richard Boxall

It was a weekend to remember for Royal Cricket Club all-rounder Sehran Ahmed – known to all as Bobby – as he hit centuries on both Saturday and Sunday to help his team to two wins.

In the 2023 CCA BAOFinancial 40 Over Cup on Saturday his 100 from 50 balls enabled Royal to achieve their target of 258 with 13 overs to spare against strong opponents Black Caps. He put on 109 for the first wicket with Waqas Akhtar (46), and was second man out with the score 184, having hit 11 sixes and 6 fours.

The game started to swing towards Black Caps as a further 6 wickets fell, with Sukhjinder Singh taking 4-62, before Royal got home with just two wickets left.

Black Caps’ first innings of 257 was built on four scores in the forties by Pawandeep Paul, Kulwinder Singh, Resham Singh and Sukhjinder Singh, while Royal’s Umar Farooq took 4-61.

The result leaves Royal top of the table with four wins from four games, while Black Caps have work to do if they are to achieve a top two position and qualify for the final.

The following day in the T20 Cup was very much a one-man show as Sehran took three wickets and two catches after hitting 109 in 52 balls (7 sixes, 13 fours) at Happy Valley against Epi Lions, whose failure to take any of the chances he offered cost them the match. The Lions in fact stuck to their task well, and bowled Royal out for 178, with Bradders Bradbury taking 3-33 and James Crowther 3-7.

The Lions’ reply was also a one-man effort as opener Izzy Isidore scored even quicker than Sehran with 75 from 31 balls, including 8 massive sixes and 4 fours. He was caught in the deep off the left-arm spin of Karan Singh in the 8th over with the score 102, and with no other batsman able to make an impression the innings subsided to 124 all out.

The other 40 over game on Saturday witnessed a very disappointing performance by the Moufflons batsmen. After Gurdeep Sharma’s 3-4 helped bowl out Markhor for 115, with only Hamza Rehman (32) making a useful score, the batters collapsed from 40 without loss to 87 all out, despite Zeeshan Sarwar’s 37. Hamza completed a man of the match effort by taking 3-21, while Junaid Ur Rahman took 3-19 and Malik Amir 3-26.

Moufflons bounced back the following day with a T20 victory over Nicosia Fighters by 8 wickets. Anowar Hossen (51 not out) took Fighters to 166-5, with support from Muhammad Tanveer, Parvez Miah Polash and a late flourish from Ramjan Hossain. But this time the Moufflons batsmen made no mistake and reached their target comfortably inside 17 overs through Zeeshan Ahmad (68 not out), Zeeshan Sarwar (46) and Shoaib Ahmad (27 not out).

The founder of Everest Cricket Club, Bimal Ranabhat, made the top score of 22 on his final appearance for the team at Happy Valley against Sri Lanka Lions. But the team’s total of 97 was unlikely to be enough to seriously challenge the Lions, for whom Roshan Siriwardana picked up his customary three tail-end victims. Akila De Silva’s 37 led the Lions to an 8-wicket win.

Jawas Shah’s century (110 from 56 balls) and two wickets with the ball were not enough to prevent Limassol Zalmi losing to Markhor. Muhammad Qamer Ali’s 3-11 and Malik Amir’s 3-20 helped bowl out Zalmi for 186, before Shahzad Ahmed (65) and Hamza Rehman (46) rescued Markhor from 73-6 with an unbroken partnership of 116 to win the match in the 16th over.

Nicosia Tigers completed their group matches with a fourth win from four games, beating Cyprus Super Kings by 41 runs. Waqas Akhtar’s 61 from 29 balls, plus 35 each by Roman Mazumder and Yasir Mehmood, helped Tigers to 218-7. The Super Kings made a spirited reply, with Rajasekhar Poluri making 89 not out, before finishing their overs on 177-7.

Nicosia Tigers and Moufflons are now guaranteed to take the top two positions in group B and qualify for the quarter final stage. MSN Punjab Lions are sure to qualify from group A, and Black Caps are strong favourites (but not there yet) in group C. Group D remains open, with Sri Lanka Lions and Markhor currently the best placed teams.