St. Catharines, July 31st , 2006 – Crescent Cricket Club, a returning team to H&D District league, was bowled out by Niagara Cricket Club for only 94 runs last Saturday. Crescent, after winning the toss surprisingly elected to bat first on a pitch full of moisture from the overnight rain. As it was obvious, the pitch favored Niagara Cricket attack bowlers. Suleman Ali with 5 wickets and Ash Jhanji with 3, literally destroyed the batting order of Crescent in only 27 overs for a low total of 94 runs on the board. Humayun Ikram and Bilal Akhtar also bowled well to keep Crescent batsmen on their tows. In reply Niagara Cricket reached the desired total in 24 overs. Varna Peiris and Ash Jhanji were the major contributors for 29 and 26 respectively. Niagara Cricket Club also suffered a lower order batting collapse when 4 of its batsmen could not make into double figures. Javed Mian, hitting the winning shot of the inning, made sure that Niagara Cricket Club had a decisive win over Crescent with 3 wickets still in hand. Shoaib Mohammed bowled well for Crescent and took 5 wickets in his spell of 10 overs.
On Sunday, Niagara Cricket Club hosted Mississauga Ramblers at Ridley. After winning the toss Niagara Cricket Club opened the batting with Grupreet Singh and Tan Qureshi. The opening pair formed a solid base with 49 runs on board in the first seven over. After Singh being out with his superb knock, Protul Shrikant joined Qureshi. In the 2nd wicket partnership they brought the Niagara Cricket Club score to 102 when Qureshi was caught at the mid on while Shrikant made 33 valuable runs. Ash Jhanji, maintaining his form as a key batsman, contributed 29 while Nasir Mahmood scored 31. When it appeared that stage was set by the top order for a total of 250+ runs, Niagara Cricket Club suffered another middle and lower order collapse and were all out for a total of 198 runs.
In reply Mississauga played well and planned their batting order for achievable target in 50 allotted overs. However Grupreet Singh and Ash Jhanji bowled well to keep them restrained. At one point Ramblers were very much within their reach with 104 for loss of only 2 wickets. However quick bowling changes made by the skipper Qureshi kept putting pressure on Ramblers. Niagara Cricket Club key bowlers Imran Aslam, Bilal Akhtar, Varun Seth, Grupreet Singh and Ash Jhanji were used appropriately to attack the main Ramblers batsmen which changed everything. The Ramblers were finally all out for 164.
With these 2 wins, Niagara Cricket Club is now at the 2nd spot in the H&D league standing. Cambridge CCC remains on the top with no loss this season.
Niagara Cricket Club will host Brantford this Sunday Aug 6th at Ridley