Week 3 of the Shanghai Cricket Club League offered a full slate of matches with games taking place at both the Shanghai Rugby Football Club and Dulwich College. 2011 Division 1 runner-up K2 Cricket Club of China were in action for the fist time this year, the two Division 2 Devils teams met for the first time this season to decide club bragging rights, and Division 3 Bashers, Daredevils and DPR Dogs all began their 2012 campaign.

Division 1
K2 CCC vs Bashers CC
K2 started the 2012 season facing the Bashers, still looking for their first win after previously drawing the Devils in an epic match two week before. The Bashers won the toss and elected to field. K2 quickly found themselves on the back foot as Darren Manning (8-1-41-2) and Sameer Jolly (8-0-49-1) took out the second and third batsmen early for little runs. K2 opener Waqar Khattak (15) was steady but was run out following a poor decision to attempt a suicidal single. 2011 batsman of the year Muhammad Shafqat (27) fell lbw to a swinging delivery from Tim O’Connell (8-0-56-3), who rewarded his captain for the faith shown in him after a disastrous opening over that saw him bowl six wides and two no balls. K2 captain Shuib Meer (27) scored at nearly a run a ball before falling to O’Connell who also baited the former Hot Dog now returned to his original club Mehmood Afridi into edging a delivery through to the keeper. At 119/7, the Bashers were feeling in form and looking to bowl the remaining batsmen out cheaply when Zahid Afridi (40*) and Najeeb Afridi (71) stepped up and delivered a 76 run partnership to push the total past 200. After Najeeb was finally caught off Mike Hall’s (5-0-25-1) bowling, Phil Mildenhall (4.2-0-31-2) mopped up the tail to dismiss K2 in the 35th over for 246.

Bashers openers Dave Rosenthal (18) and Hadleigh Churchill (41) built a solid platform with Churchill scoring at over a run a ball to keep the Bashers well above the run rate early on. Glenn Rowell (13) and Oliver Austin (23) were just beginning to build a partnership when Rowell was caught behind off Mehmood’s (8-0-42-1) bowing. Darren Manning (59*) and Mike Hall (37) quickly set in at the crease and the Bashers comfortably reached 249 with 6 overs in hand. Meer (6-0-47-2), Sajid Anwar (7-0-40-1) and Shafqat (3-0-28-1) were the pick of the K2 bowlers, who struggled all day with line and length, conceding 45 wides.

K2 CCC 246/10, Bashers CC 249/5 – Bashers won by 5 wickets (Download the Scorecard)

Pudong Power vs Daredevils CC
Both Pudong Power and the Daredevils were in search of their first win of the 2012 season when they sides met at SRFC on Sunday. Pudong won the toss and elected to bat. The Daredevils’ attack kept Pudong’s batting under wraps for most of the innings, with Sanjay Anugula (8-1-19-4) leading a bowling attack that had Pudong all out in the 33rd over for 113.  Zhang Yufei (5-0-21-2) Deepak Nautiyal (8-0-18-2), and Li Jian (4.3-0-21-2) contributed the rest of the wickets.

Dinesh Pissurlenkar (28) and KhazaKhizar Shaik (13) started the chase and built a solid partnership before hitting into catches off of Santosh Yadav and Eric Marcellin’s bowling. Hero of the Devils first match, Jon Newton, retired hurt on 0, leaving the chase to Chinese international Zhang Yufei (34*) and Jonti Lebowitz (25*). The Daredevils reached the required target in 18.3 overs.

Pudong Power 113/10, Daredevils CC 117/2 – Daredevils won by 8 wickets.

Division 2
Leopards CC vs Pudong Power
The first match of the day in Division 2 was the between the former and the current division champions. Fresh from a win over the last year finalist Devils Digitals, Leopards CC won the toss and quickly sent the reigning champs into the field. Biplav Pokhrel (51), Manish Lohani(58) and Zeb Khan (44) helped set a large big score as the Leopards posted 261/8 in swinging, overcast conditions. Pratik Gadhecha (6-1-24-4) was the pick of the Pudong bowlers with Captain James Gooding (6-0-54-1), Jonathan Rose (6-0-61-1) and Sandeep Abichandani (6-0-44-1) picking a wicket apiece.

Chasing 262 to win, the Pudong batsmen were in early trouble losing opener Siddarth Sinha for a duck in the second over of the innings. With some tight disciplined bowling from the Leopards the wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Though some resistance were shown by the Pudong batsmen Mark Bernhard (22), James Gooding (16), Manojit Dhar (17), runs were hard to come by. With some late overs strikes from the number 9 batsman, Sandeep Abichandani (36*), Pudong were able to break 150 for a final score of 154/9 in their 30 overs – well short of the score set by the Leopards. Leopards bowlers Tariq Malik (5-1-19-3), Thilan Ginthota (6-1-24-3), Biblav Pokhrel (3-0-11-1) kept the runs down and pressure on through their respective spells.

Leopards CC 261/8, Pudong Power 154/9 – Leopards won by 107 runs. (Download the Scorecard)

Dynamite Devils vs Digital Devils
The Dynamite Devils won the toss and elected to bat. Digital bowlers Sri Chaitanya Vanapalli (5.4-0-29-3) and Parthiban Lingam (4-1-12-2) rocked the batting order with their disciplined swing bowling and Dynamites lost their top five wickets in very short order. Anurag Bisht (23)and Rakesh Patniak (14) tried to build up the innings but Digital bowlers kept them in check. Dynamite was bundled out for 109 in 23.4 overs.

Devils Digitals set off their chase in attacking mode with Avinash Mattoo (52) leading the charge early. Dynamite bowlers Abdur Rahman (3-0-20-1) and Rana Guha (3.4-0-26-3) chipped in with few wickets but the Digitals easily reached the total in 18.4 overs.

Dynamite Devils 110/10, Digital Devils 112/5 – Digital Devils won by 5 wickets. (Download the Scorecard)

Division 3
Bashers CC vs Daredevils CC
The first match of the day in Division 3 featured two teams that had yet to play a game in 2012. The Bashers won the toss and elected to put the Devils at the crease. Andy Plain (13) and team captain Andrew Sutherland (23) got the Devils out of the gate quickly, scoring at nearly a run a ball, before falling to the spin attack of Denzyl Allwright (4-0-15-4) and Stephen Bradley (2-0-13-1). Gopi Mathivan and Oliver Clarke both added 17 runs to the board and Jack Osbourne (4), James Prowse (5) and Joe Luis (8) also contributed. Along with Allwright and Bradley, Chris Douglas (2-0-9-1) collected a wicket while all eight Bashers bowlers produced tight spells, restricting the Devils to a low 98 runs from their 20 overs.

Faced with defending a very low score, the Daredevils struck early as Gopi Mathivanan (3-0-5-3) took both of the openers’ wickets for 0 runs. Stephen Bradely (21) and SCC League debutant Jon Radford (34*) staved off the Bashers collapse. Fellow SCC League debutant Adam Baker (14) and Paul Howard (6*) also added runs as the Bashers reached the target in 17.5 overs. Tight bowling from Jack Osbourne (3-0-17-1) and Oliver Clarke (2-0-8-0) kept the game close to the last few overs.

Daredevils CC 97/7, Bashers CC 100/5 – Bashers CC won by 5 wickets. (Download the Scorecard)

DPR Hot Dogs vs Pudong Dads & Lads
The Dads and Lads had a great start with the first ball of the day from James Kaunhoven absolutely bamboozling Hot Dogs opener Venki Eagapati who decided to take off for a quick single. The ball was quickly picked up and the Hot Dogs were 0 for 1 for from one delivery. The second delivery of the match nearly resulted in the same as the new batsman to the crease again looked for a run and the Dogs were nearly two down. Peter Roy steadied the ship and retired after reaching 50 in aggressive fashion. Supported by Sunil Mandhara, Vishal Sundram, Lachlan Wolfers and Andy Steel, the score kept ticking up

With the big score ahead of the Dads and Lads, Vince Unquary (32) and Joe Saliba went into bat. Saliba was the first to go out, clean bowled for 5 runs. Pudong batters Tim Bradfield (5), Jarryd Saliba (3), Himev Mahanta (4), Paul Turner (10) and James Kaunhoven (10) all contributed to the chase. The wickets were shared around the Hot Dogs, as were the bowling duties. Despite some dreadful dropped catches by Stu Farr, the fielding was tight and runs needed to be earned. Special mention goes to Jitesh, Venki Eagapeti and Sunil Mandanhia for some top bowling, Chris Spackman and Lachlan Wolfers for some tireless running in the fields and great catches by Andy Steel behind the stumps and Amit Tiwari in the deep.

DPR Hot Dogs 169/4, Pudong Dads & Lads 101/9 – DPR Hot Dogs won by 68 runs. (Download the Scorecard)

Upcoming matches
Matches this weekend: D1: DPR Hot Dogs vs Daredevils CC; D2: Bashers CC vs Pudong Power, DPR Hot Dogs vs Dynamite Devils; D3: DPR Hot Dogs vs Dulwich Knights.