Everest on top of the world

By Richard Boxall

Another busy weekend of cricket started with this year’s first youth cricket session at Ypsonas cricket ground on Saturday, when the potential stars of the future were introduced to the basic skills of the game by Cyprus Cricket’s trained coaches, supported by sponsors ChartWorld.

This was followed by a gripping match between Akrotiri and Markhor in the BAOFinancial 40 Over league presented by HurryCurry. The RAF team hit 270, led by Isidore’s 84 which included 8 sixes and 7 fours, supported by Burdekin with 43 and Walbridge (58).

Markhor were reduced to 31-3 before a middle order recovery by Malik (42), Sadiq (54) and Zeeshan (46), but at 207-7 they still had a lot to do.

The man for the occasion was Salman, who earlier took 4 wickets for 26. Now his unbeaten 48 enabled Markhor to reach their victory target without further loss, with just two overs to spare.

Also in the 40 Over league, at Happy Valley Everest maintained their winning start – 3 wins from 3 games – by inflicting a heavy defeat on Kipro Tigers of Limassol.

Ashish made 87 as Everest totalled 262. For the Tigers Jamin took 3-32 and Amit made 32 in their reply, but they were only able to reach a total of 87.

Sunday saw five matches in the T20 league with some notable performances, particularly from the bowlers.

The most remarkable figures belonged to Prince of Amdocs, who took three wickets in the first over of Telugu 11’s innings, and finished with 4-6 from his 4 overs.

As a result Telugu were bowled out for 79 in reply to Amdocs’ score of 122-6, which was based on Ketan’s 47 and 31 not out by Rahul. Telugu’s early bowling was as tight as usual and Rajasekhar took 4-16 before being upstaged by Prince.

Cyprus Knight Riders produced an upset in beating Limassol Zalmi by 6 wickets. Rakib took 5-29 to limit Zalmi to 83 all out, and Jowel’s 36 not out took the Riders to their target.

Nicosia Fighters put up a reasonable score of 135-8, with Khan making 33, while Al Fatah’s Tasawar took 3-24. But Abubaqar’s 56 and an unbeaten 51 by Awais helped Al Fatah to a 7-wicket win.

Brar and Pintu each took three wickets at low cost to keep Limassol Moufflons to 116 all out, with Gulzar making 37 not out.

Then, despite Amir’s 3-14, Pawandeep, Brar and Bhupinder all made scores in the thirties to get the Caps to a 6-wicket win.

In a match described by umpire Tracey Pasquill as being “played in a fantastic spirit and a real pleasure to umpire”, Moufflons defeated Napa Kings by 54 runs.

Lakhwinder’s 55 helped Moufflons to 120 while Kashif took 4-17 for the Kings, who were then bowled out for 66, with Sharma taking 3-11.

Roughly half way through the group stage of the T20 competition, only 5 teams are still unbeaten – Amdocs, Moufflons, Lankan Sports Club, Punjabi Kings and Markhor.

But many other teams still have a chance to qualify for the knockout stages, so there is plenty of competitive cricket still to be played.