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H&D Cricket League - 2007 Champions
St. Catharines Cricket Club
wins the H&D 2007 Championship
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Cricket News – Sep 10, 2007 |
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St. Catharines Cricket
Club ends their 6 years draught by beating both Hamilton and Crescent CC in the
playoffs last weekend to become 2007 District League Champions. Lifting
the Championship trophy on Sunday after the final game, the city team captain
Tan Qureshi dedicated this win to Mr. Brian Hewitt, the club ex- president, a
strong supporter of Cricket and a highly dedicated member for over 50 years. Mr.
Hewitt passed away during mid season in August. “Brian would have loved to
see St. Catharines winning the championship and this day” said Tan Qureshi.
On Saturday, playing the
semi finals, a knock out game at Ridley College Cricket grounds, St. Catharines
won the toss and elected to field first by putting Hamilton in to bat. Imran
Aslam, Bilal Akhtar, Adeel Khan and Warna Peiris bowled well and kept Hamilton
score to a modest total. Hamilton team scored 158 in their allotted 40 overs
for the loss of 9 wickets while St. Catharines ended up chasing the score in
only 27 overs with a magnificent inning by Javed Mian of St. Catharines scoring
31. Nasir Mahmood 42 and Adeel Khan 32 all batted well in the middle order for
the modest run chase.
After the Saturday win,
the stage was set for the championship game on Sunday between St. Catharines and
the unbeaten team of Crescent CC.
With a rain delayed
start, it was decided by the 2 league officiating umpires to have a limited overs of 25 in
this final game. Crescent CC won the toss and elected to field first. St. Catharines sent Adeel Khan and Warna Peiris to open up the batting. Right from
the very first over, the tone was set by Adeel Khan who hit two sky sixer
consecutive boundaries to the Crescent attack bowler Tawab Ikram. The scored
reached to 15 runs in the first 6 balls of Tawab Ikram. It appeared that Khan
was toying with the attack of Crescent CC while clubbing them all over the
Mohawk Park right from the beginning. Getting few boundaries hit by Khan, Crescent CC
skipper decided to change Tawab
Ikram after giving him only one over. However the score continue to climb and crossed
50 in the first 6 overs. Adeel Khan 33, Warna Peiris 31, Austin Codington 29,
Bilal Akhtar 30 all contributed to put a high total in the 21overs i.e. when the
allotted time ran out. Tan Qureshi and Bilal Akhtar
remained not when the total reached 157 for the loss of 6 wickets.
Batting under pressure
while chasing a high total of 157 in 21 allotted overs, Crescent CC batting line up start
to fall apart right from the beginning. They showed little resistance to
the bowling attack of Austin Codington and Nasir Mahmood. Crescent CC lost their
two quick wicket with score of only 6 on board in the very 2nd over
and start to loose more wickets in short intervals one after another without
scoring 15 rusn as their personal score. At the end,
only one batsman, Mani, managed to stay on the wicket scoring over 15 runs. Warna
Peiris captured 3 key wickets of the top order Crescent batsmen. Closing the batting
innings, Crescent CC, managed to score only 121 runs when the allotted time ran
out and umpires announced St. Catharines the Champions of 2007 Hamilton &
District Cricket League Trophy.
St. Catharines Cricket
Club elected their club player Warna Peiris as Man of the Match
for the final champiosnhip game with his well managed knock of 31 runs as
an opening batsman and capturing 3 key wickets of the top order Crescent CC
batsmen. Warna's contribution really made the major dent as he swung the game to St. Catharines
single handedly.
This championship game was totally dominate by St. Catharines in both bowling &
batting skills over a stronger
and unbeaten side of Crescent Cricket Club. Congratulations to Tan Qureshi,
Javed Mian, Nasir Mahmood, Adeel Khan, Ash Jhanji, Graeme Murphy, Imran Aslam,
Amit Sharma, Rizwan Aslam, Warna Peiris, and Austin Codrington to make St.
Catharines the 2007 H&D Cricket League Champions.
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St. Catharines knocks Crescent
out of the 20/20 tournament
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Cricket News – Aug 14, 2007 |
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St. Catharines, Aug 14, 2007
– St. Catharines City Cricket Club team post a major
win while playing in the 20/20 Ed Burn tournament last Sunday at
Mohawk Park in Hamilton. A well knit team of 11 lead by Nasir
Mahmood and Javed Main knocked the leading H&D team of Crescent C C.
out of the 20/20 tournament . The win was so dominating that
it appeared to be a one sided match when St. Catharines beat
Crescent comprehensively by 7 wickets' and outperformed them in all
departments i.e. bowling, batting and fielding.
Crescent batting
first, managed to score 151 runs and went all out in the second last over.
The attack bowling of St. Catharines, opened by Nasir Mahmood and Naveed
Sehrai, was close to perfection and gave only 5o odd runs in the first 10
overs. Nasir captured 3 wickets while leg spinner Bilal Akhtar did major
damage to the Crescent batsmen by taking 4 key wickets. Both Bilal and
Naveed also took superb catches in the out field. Fardeen Aziz run out was
remarkable.
In reply, St.
Catharines opened the batting with Warna Peiris and Adeel Khan. Both of them
set the tone as the score climbed quickly to 30+ in only first 3 overs. Warno,
a true WALL as an opening batsman capitalized every opportunity to score
runs. Imran Aslam, batting one down, showed all the Crescent batsmen how to
really hit a sixer, when his 3 sixes crossed the grounds in high air while
one of them landed in outside areas of adjacent parking lots. As
the top order set the run rate, Nasir Mahmood, back in his usual form, paced
his innings aggressively and scored his half century BUT making sure that he
remained on the crease when St. Catharines passed the 152 mark in only 16
over with FOUR overs to spare. Warna also remained not out at 36.
This win has settled
up the scores and some vision of all teams in the league that on a give day,
any team is beatable. For the records, Crescent CC, a highly competitive
team composed of some of the best cricketers in the area, has now suffered
their very first loss of the 2007 season.
St. Catharines will
now host Hamilton City team here at Ridley this Sunday Aug 19th
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St.
Catharines wins over Cambridge
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Cricket News – July 30, 2007
St.
Catharines, July 30, 2007
– St. Catharines City cricket club team wins a tense and a
close match while
playing at Cambridge. A real competitive and nail biting
match went right down the wire until a magnificent catch, well held
by Amit Sharma on the long off boundary, wrapping up the Cambridge
batting line up. St. Catharines won the game by only 9 runs.
St.
Catharines won the toss, elected to bat first and opened the batting
with captain Tan Qureshi and Saqib Khan. An early break through by
Cambridge of Qureshi’s wicket gave them an immediate upper hand.
Adeel Khan and Graeme Murphy batted well in their partnership of 54
runs while Cambridge bowlers took wickets in regular intervals. At
the end, Humayun Ikram fast paced 14 runs gave St. Catharines a
total of 135 runs on board.
Cambridge,
batting second were well cruising on their way to chase the modest
total of 135. While passing 100 runs mark Cambridge still had 4
wickets in hand. Wendell Wharton of Cambridge, a key batsman was
still at the crease when Cambridge reached 120, well in control of
the game requiring only 16 runs to win with 2 wickets in hand.
However, a sky catch at the long off boundary line well held by Amit
Sharma, took the key batsman Wharton out, changing everything in
favor of St. Catharines. Cambridge tail end batsmen went all out 9
runs short of the desired total of 136 runs.
St.
Catharines will now travel to Hamilton this Sunday Aug 5th
to play the H& D League top seeded team of Crescent Cricket Club.
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St. Catharines: :
July 2nd, 2007 :
STC
took a challenge from a combined team, composed of few players from
the National Cricket Club to play an exhibition match at Ridley – as
part of Canada Day Celebrations. The high scoring match was won by
St. Catharine by 3 wickets.
The visiting
team won the toss, elected to bat first and opened their batting
with Saqib Khan and Niaz Kirmani. St. Catharines made an early break
through by capturing Saqib Khan’s wicket while Niaz Kirmani was
joined by his brother Farooq Kirmani, the ex captain of Canadian
National Team, to repair the loss of the early wicket. Both Kirmanis
played exceptionally well Farooq Kirmani scored 71 while Niaz
Kirmani ran short of 6 runs from his century at 94. The visitors
closed their inning with a total score of 211 in their 35 allotted
overs. Warna Peiris bowled well for St. Catharines capturing 4 key
wickets while giving only 22 runs in his spell of 6 overs. Adeel
Khan took 3 superb catches for St. Catharines in the out field at
the long on position.
St. Catharines
opened the batting with Tan Qureshi and Warna Peiris. However the
opening partnership was broken in the very first over when Peiris
was caught behind attempting to play an in-swing delivery giving an
inside edge. Adeel Khan, a leading and a key batsman of St.
Catharines, was also removed cheaply shortly after on a very similar
delivery. St. Catharines were in trouble at only 18 for the loss of
two big wickets. However, a key partnership of 84 runs established
between Graeme Murphy and skipper Tan Qureshi changed the flow
to a winning game for St. Catharines. Qureshi scored 41 runs while
Murphy contributed 37 very valuable runs. St. Catharines reached the
desired total with Javed Mian at 24 and Rizwan Aslam at 12 remaining
not out at the crease. Bilal Akhtar fast pace 30, which included 2
magnificent sixes, increased the run rate considerably to help
St. Catharines reaching to 212 mark in the 33rd over. |
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