Paras Khushulan added his name to the SCC League Honour Boards yet again with the performance of the season, taking apart the cream of the Division 1 Bashers for seven wickets. Conceding only 8 runs – with only two off the bat – Khushulan completed his stand with two maiden overs as Pudong dominated the Bashers at SRFC. Division 2 featured matches between the Bashers and the Leopards and between Pudong and the Hot Dogs. The Bashers, Daredevils, Hot Dogs and Pudong Dads & Lads were in action in Division 3.

Division 1

Pudong Power vs Bashers CC
Under very grey skies and in humid conditions, the Bashers won the toss and sent Pudong in to bat. Pudong openers Russell Cool (45) and Graeme McKim (33) took the score along to 94 before Mckim was out in Phil Mildenhall’s first over and the 17th of the innings. Martin Hanscombe and Cool took the total to 111 before Cool was out caught off John L’Epagniol. A few quick wickets saw Pudong 4 for 141 in the 26th over. Hanscombe and Bernie Hughes steadied the ship before Hanscombe was next out for a tidy 32 caught on the boundary trying to lift the scoring rate. Hughes and Ankit Kawatra (7) then took the score past the 200 mark before he was out LBW. Quick wickets followed as Pudong tried to lift the scoring rate in the final overs before finishing at 9 down for 235 off the allotted 40 overs. Hughes was out in the 38th over for a well-compiled 40 off 30 balls. For the Bashers, wickets were shared amongst Mildenhall with four and Mike Hall with three, while John L’Epagniol claimed one off his 8 overs. Jon Radford provided support in the field with three good catches.

The Bashers started badly, losing two early wickets to Pratik Gadecha in the first five overs for only seven runs before a quick partnership between Glenn Rowell and Manoj Zalpuri took the Bashers chase to 61 after 11 overs. Amogh Kasyap then claimed Zalpuri’s wicket before Paras Khushalan took a brace of wickets that soon saw the Bashers tumble to 5 for 67. Khushalan kept the pressure on, continuing to pile up scalps as the Bashers batting attack withered in the face of his deadly swing bowling. Only conceding two runs off the bat during his spell, he finished with the best bowling figures of the season so far: 7.2-2-8-7. The Bashers were all out for 94 in the 25th over. Pudong claimed seven catches with keeper Russell Cool taking three and Martin Hanscombe taking another great one-handed catch at point.

Pudong Power 235/9, Bashers CC 94/10 – Pudong won by 141 runs.

Division 2

Pudong Power vs DPR Hot Dogs
The DPR Hot Dogs entered Sunday’s game still in search of their first win. With heavy rain on Saturday, an early morning Sunday game was not certain. With great enthusiasm both team arrived on time to see an outfield drenched with water. Still the game started on time. Pudong won the toss elected to bat first. The Power started steadily. Mandar Sathe and Vikas Laxman shared the new ball. In the middle overs, Chaitanya Reddy and Venki Eegapati put the breaks on and got couple of important wickets. Eric Marcellin (41) steadied the Pudong innings with some big sixes. The Hot Dogs used Rak Mistry to counter attack Marcellin’s mighty sixes. Sid Sinha also batted well for his 25 to take Pudong to a score of 156. Mandar Satte (5-0-23-2) and Venki Eegapati(6-2-24-2) were the wicket taking bowlers.

Peter Todorov and Mandar Sathe opened the innings for Hot Dogs and remained vigilant against the speed and accuracy of James Boot (6-1-18-0) and Eric Marcellin (6-0-35-0). At the drinks break Hot Dogs were sitting comfortably on 71 for none. Odd boundaries and singles kept the score ticking over and when Sathe (29) finally fell, the Hot Dogs were on 102. SCC League debutant Sudhir Rai (7) seemed confident at the crease, but quickly hit into a catch off Rakesh Kumar’s bowling. Another League debutant, Sourabh Mathur (14), stayed around longer and along with Todorov, who would carry his bat to a score of 72*, saw through the chase in 27th over.

Pudong Power 156/8, DPR Hot Dogs 160/2 – DPR Hot Dogs won by 8 wickets.

Bashers CC vs Leopards CC
Leopards won the toss and elected to bat. Openers H. Metla and D. Malik went out cheaply, both induced by Travis Weir to hit into easy catches at long off. Biplav Pohkrel (29) and Manish Lohani took the reigns and built a solid partnership as the Bashers allowed the Leopards batsmen to settle in to the crease and begin to hit multiple boundaries through the middle and late overs. Sam Finnerty and Desmond DeSilva were able to split up budding partnerships but a missed early chance to catch Lohani would prove costly as he put on 75 runs from 54 deliveries without giving up his wicket. At the end of their 30 overs, the Leopards had reached 221 for 7.

The Bashers began the chase and an early partnership of Gary Dubberley (15) and Mal Collins (31) was steady, if slow at keeping the scoreboard ticking upwards. Adam O’Brien (30) also contributed to as Leopards bolwers began to chalk up regular wickets. Biplav Pokhrel (6-0-51-3) conceded runs but took key wickets. Slightly behind the run rate by the time they reached the 25th over, Andy Scott (10) and Sean Malcon (29*) built a 40-run partnership on overthrows and cheeky singles as the Bashers upped the tempo. With Scott run out on the last ball of the penultimate over and needing 18 off the final over to win, the Leopards shut the door, restricting the Bashers to just 5 from the final over. Bashers came up 13 runs short, scoring 208 for 9 in the chase.

Leopards CC 221/7, Bashers CC 208/9 – Leopards CC won by 13 runs.

Division 3

Pudong Dads & Lads vs DPR Hot Dogs
Pudong won the toss and without any hesitation decided to bat. They lost their openers early in the innings. Hemav Mahanta and Nilesh Mhatre played some beautiful shots to help Pudong reach a respectable total of 126. At one point it looked like they were going to reach 150, but they lost wickets at regular intervals, proving costly as they were all out with 1.4 overs still remaining. The credit also should go to the Hot Dogs bowlers, especially Vikranth (4-0-25-4) and Venki Eegapati (3-0-19-3).

The Hot Dogs started their inning with Venki Eegapati and Saurabh. Hardik Mharte bowled well but unfortunately his lbw appeals were just missing the leg stump. Eegapati was dispatched early but Saurabh played well and made sure that the scoring rate was good enough to chase the total with good support from Manju Wijerama at the other end. At the drinks break, the Hot Dogs were 68 for 1 and Suarbh retired hurt due to a hamstring injury. Soon after the break, the Dogs lost Wijerama, Jitesh Hotswanie and Vikranth in quick succession, putting the chase into doubt. Andy Steel (37*) steadied the ship with some splendid shots around the ground. League debutant Sai hit the winning runs with a boundary to the square leg and the Hot Dogs registered another convincing victory of the season with 2.4 overs still remaining.

Pudong Dads & Lads 126/10, DPR Hot Dogs 129/4 – DPR Hot Dogs won by 6 wickets.