Ashish Bam century helps Everest to superb opening win

By Richard Boxall

The BAOFinancial 40 Over Cup presented by HurryCurry got off to an excellent start with a wonderful contest between Telugu 11 and Everest at the Ypsonas cricket ground.

Telugu would have felt confident of victory after winning the toss and putting up a score of 284, the last wicket falling to the final ball of their 40 overs. Sivannarayana Patti (73) and Vinod Kumar (82) put on 176 for the second wicket to provide the backbone of the innings, while Arjun Shahi took 3-46 for Everest.

Telugu then reduced Everest to 43-3 in reply, before Ashish Bam, who had earlier claimed three catches behind the stumps and a run out, was joined by Shyam Sundar in a match-winning partnership of 208. Shyam fell for 83 but Ashish was there till the end, reaching 110 not out as his team pulled off a remarkable 6-wicket win.

The following day, in the Spring T20 league, newcomers Al Fatah were given a scare by Cyprus Knight Riders before winning by 5 wickets. The Riders only managed a modest 124 all out, with Iftekar Jaman (38) and Jiban Jahangir (31) the main contributors.

For Al Fatah Umar Farooq achieved a hat-trick on his way to 3-15, while Tasawar Gujjar took 3-22. When their openers Rasab Sher and Waqas Akhtar put on 44 for the first wicket it seemed that victory would be a formality.

However, five wickets fell quickly, three of them to Rakib Hasan (3-12), and at 71-5 the result was very much in the balance. But Al Fatah had a man for the occasion. Asif Mehmood, who had earlier taken 2-15 and held a catch, came to the rescue with an unbeaten 38, helping his team reach their target without further loss with two overs to spare.

Over the same weekend a team representing Moufflons CC, the winners of last spring’s T20 cup, was in Spain, taking part in the European Cricket League, a 10 overs-a-side competition for the champion teams of 35 countries across Europe. The Cypriot team had the misfortune to be the victims of flight problems, so that instead of arriving the evening before their part of the tournament, they actually reached the Cartama Oval, near Malaga, shortly before the start of their first game.

In the circumstances it was unsurprising that they were caught cold and bowled out for 66 by the strong Irish representatives, who eventually won all their games to top the group. Chamal Sadun top-scored for Moufflons with 19, but despite Scott Burdekin’s 2-18 they were comfortably beaten by 7 wickets.

Later in the day Moufflons performed considerably better against Oslo, the Norwegian champions. Akila Kalugala (26), Scott Burdekin (20), Jevin Isidore (23) and Shoaib Ahmad (38 not out) all found some form to reach a score of 130-3. Oslo were behind the required run rate until a flurry of sixes in the last three overs brought them victory with two balls to spare.

The following day against Calpe Giants from Gibraltar, Moufflons were given an excellent start of 40 in two and a half overs by Akila (37) and Burdekin (24) but the innings fell away and the final total was a disappointing 113-7. For the third consecutive match Burdekin took two wickets with his off-spin, and at 72-5 in the 8th over the match seemed to be going Moufflons’ way.

However the Giants’ captain now joined their opening bat who was still there, and together they knocked off the runs with 4 balls left, leaving Moufflons needing to win their last game, against Cluj of Romania, to have any chance of progressing in the competition.

This soon became mission impossible as the Cluj openers put on 89 in less than 5 overs and, despite Roshan Siriwardana’s two wickets in two balls, a total of 157-5 was a very tough target. It became even tougher as Moufflons slipped to 64-8, eventually finishing on 87-8, with the only contributions of note coming from Isidore (38) and Nalin Pathirana (22 not out).

Positives to take from the competition will include the experience gained of playing against better opposition, and the individual successes with the bat of Akila and Isidore, the all-round  performances of Burdekin, and the batting and wicketkeeping of Nalin, who achieved the most stumpings in the tournament despite playing fewer games than other keepers.