The Shanghai Cricket Club Pirates kicked off the 2016 season with a friendly Twenty20 match against Tongji University over the weekend.

The Pirates won the toss and elected to bat. Mark Henwood and Ankit Kawatra opened on a pitch that was an artificial soccer field, providing varied enough bounce to keep things interesting. Henwood batted through to the 14th over for 34 off 33 before being bowled. Pirate debutant Adrian Russell settled in and saw his unbeaten half century move the SCC's score to 180 from their 20 overs.

Tongji began the chase ably with opener I Kevlin James scoring a very handy 45 from 38 deliveries. James was support by A Hussain, K Hussain and S Tiwari who all chipped in with double digit stands. Despite this, Shanghai didn't allow partnerships to develop and regularly took wickets to keep Tongji under pressure. Russell, A Gurnani, M Kapoor and D Ravishankar all took wickets and were ably supported by a strong SCC fielding side. In the end, Tongji would rue giving away so many extras in their bowling innings as they came up short, losing by 31 runs.

The match was followed by a big night out on Yongkang Lu, where the Pirates celebrated the SCC’s first win of the year.