Niagara Cricket Club, Aug 14, 2007Niagara 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 Niagara Cricket Club 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 Niagara Cricket Club, 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, Niagara Cricket Club 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 Niagara Cricket Club 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.    

Niagara Cricket Club will now host Hamilton City team here at Ridley this Sunday Aug 19th

 Niagara Cricket Club wins over Cambridge
  – Cricket News  July 30, 2007

Niagara Cricket, July 30, 2007 – Niagara 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. Niagara Cricket Club won the game by only 9 runs.

Niagara Cricket Club 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 Niagara Cricket Club 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 Niagara Cricket Club. Cambridge tail end batsmen went all out 9 runs short of the desired total of 136 runs.

Niagara Cricket Club 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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Niagara Cricket Club: : 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. Niagara Cricket Club 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 Niagara Cricket Club capturing 4 key wickets while giving only 22 runs in his spell of 6 overs. Adeel Khan took 3 superb catches for Niagara Cricket Club in the out field at the long on position.

Niagara Cricket Club 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 Niagara Cricket, was also removed cheaply shortly after on a very similar delivery. Niagara Cricket Club 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 Niagara Cricket. Qureshi scored 41 runs while Murphy contributed 37 very valuable runs. Niagara Cricket Club 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 Niagara Cricket Club reaching to 212 mark in the 33rd over.