Sixes Fly at 'Cradle of Cricket'

Report by Topspinner:

TEN sixes were lofted over the Broadhalfpenny Down boundary when the touring Kenya Kongonis cricket team met Brigands CC at the famous 'cradle of cricket' venue near Hambledon, Hampshire, UK, on Sunday. Half of these came from the bat of Neil Trestrail, who has led several MCC teams to Kenya, with 64 not out, the others from Mark Brearey (78 not out), during an unbroken sixth wicket stand of 152.

On a true pitch but one with an initially slow outfield after incessant rain on Saturday, Brigands felt they had Kongonis on the rack at 88 for 5 after 30 overs, but after lunch Trestrail and Brearey opened up and the sizeable crowd of spectators had to take cover as the ball was struck emphatically over all parts of the picturesque hill-top ground.

Kongonis captain David Waters, who was recently awarded an MBE by the Queen for his services to cricket - and much else - in Kenya, and is father of Kenya player Seren Waters, declared on 240 for 5 (55 overs).

Brigands, a largely naval outfit, were always going to find it hard to meet the target and were soon one down with only two runs on the board. But by tea they had reached 57 for 1 from 17 overs and shortly thereafter were 82 for 1 from 20. In the last session they put on a further 139 runs for the loss of five more wickets to total 221 for 7 and play out for an honourable draw - bringing to a satisfactory conclusion their Golden Jubilee Cricket Week.

Odhiambo again the man for Swamibapa

Super League:

Nehemiah Odhiambo turned in another fine all round performance as Swamibapa trounced Simba Union by 228 runs in their second convincing win of the NPCA season. Batting first, Swamibapa scored an imposing 358 with several batsmen chipping in with Half Centuries: Maurice Ouma 62, Nehemiah Odiambo 66 and Tony Suji 67 while Mitesh Sangani top scored with 80. Odhiambo then took 3 for15, Shem Obado 3 for 13 and Elijah Otieno 2 for 19 as Simba Union were bundled out for 130, only Runish Shah (51) making an impression with the bat. Shah earlier stood out with the ball for Simba picking up 3-69.

Report – Joseph Angara

Stray Lions(18 points) captained by Jimmy Kamande registered their second win this season when they beat Sir Ali Sports Club by nine wickets at the Peponi School Ground on Sunday in their NPCA Super League match which was umpired by Subhash Modi and Daniel Macdonald.

Sir Ali Sports Club won the toss and elected to bat first and were soon in trouble against the tight bowling of Darshit Shah (4-22) and Hiren Varaiya (4-24). Sir Ali Sports Club were bowled out for 94 runs in 35.3 overs. Their top scorers were Faraz Bhutt 37 and Aslam 14.

Stray Lions did not have much problem in scoring the required runs - 98 for 1 wicket in 11.5 overs thanks mainly to David Obuya 34, Jimmy Kamande 31 Not Out and Peter Kituku 23 not out.

Rakep Patel meanwhile showed why he should be given more responsibility for the National Team as he stroked a chanceless 138 in the battle between the two Kanbis sides, the only century of the round. Kanbis A went on to win by 48 runs, Rajesh Bhudia also chipping in with 60 runs.

Telca recorded their first win of the season as they coasted to a 193 run thumping of Sir Ali. Thomas Odoyo (60) and Newton Muthee (59) were the stars with the bat while Alfred Luseno took 4-16 and Vikram Thampy 3-27 in an easy run in the field.

Division 1:

Kongonis Development side turned around their first week loss with a solid 69 run win over Ruaraka. Batting first, Kongonis made 246 with the main contributors being William Rudd (76), Chris Childs (49), Duncan Allen (21), dominic Wesonga (19) and Hugo Norman (18). Manoj (A...?) 3-30 and Aashit (...?) 3-38 were the best bowlers for Ruaraka. In restricting Ruaraka to 177, Allen was the pick taking 3 for 35 off 9 while Bernard (O...?) took 3 for 42 off 9.3 and Wesonga was most economical with 2 for 20 off 10.Luv Hirani top scored for Ruaraka with 40.

Report – Dominic Wesonga

Division 2:

Golden XI won yesterday against Sir Ali 'B'. Sir Ali won the toss and elected to bat, they scored 132 all out with Tariq top scoring on 25. in reply Golden X1 easily reached the target with some aggressive play from the opening batsmen Mitesh(24) and Kamlesh(29)

Report - Charles Kariuki

The Ladies XI cricket side lost their opening match of the season by 143 runs to Aaryans on Sunday. But despite the loss the girls put a spirited fight to resctrict the hosts to 220 despite being on 76 for 0 at one stage. Ruth Mwihaki stared with 4 wickets. But the batting was the let down once again. Hope we will see improvement in the next match when they face Ruaraka. Report - Dun Okinyo

Keep the results coming in please, we will update as we can - Full results are out and will follow in a separate post

Odhiambo leads way as Swamibapa win

Early reports coming in from the first round of the NPCA League:

SUPER DIV:
Swamibapa starts on a high note beating Kanbis B by 173 runs: Nehemiah Odhiambo hitting a deserved 101 with 8 sixes and 5 fours with a supportive 60 from Kenya Captain Maurice Ouma and Shem Obando’s 25 helping Swamibapa to 254. Bowling honours for Kanbis were shared by Captain Gopal Vekaria 3/59 and Rohit Vekaria 2/53.

Odhiambo (pictured during the recent Intercontinental cup match v Ireland - photo courtesy Cricket Europe) then went on to take 6 wickets for 26 as his brother, James Ngoche, picked up 3 for 10 runs as Kanbis B faltered to 81 all out. Mansukh Jessani (16) and Jagdish Khetani (16) were the best of the Kanbis batsmen.
Report – Joseph Angara (Swamibapa), Subhash Modi (Umpire)

Simba Union won against Sir Ali by 7 wickets. Sir Ali won the toss and elected to bat scoring 127, a total that Simba chased down in just 19 overs.
Report – Abdulqadir Najmi (Simba Union)

Straylions A played its first match with Sri Cutchi Leva Patel Samaj in the Super League at Peponi School. SCLPS won the toss and elected to field first. David Obuya and Steve Tikolo opened the batting and they made a huge opening partnership of 266 in 36 overs. David Obuya got out for 77 and Steve Tikolo 170. Stray Lions' other main contributor was Peter Kituku who scored 29. Stray Lions ended with 346/6 in 50 overs. SCLPS started the batting after lunch and were all out for 142 in 23 overs. Darshit Shah took 5 Wickets, Hiren Varaiya took 3 wickets, Josphet Ababu and Andrew Mboya took one each.
Report - Thota Sreenivas (Stray Lions)

Kanbis A 252 (Rajesh Varsani 59, Arvind Halai 37, Ramesh Mepani 32, Vikram ? 2-44, Paul Anjere 2-50, Alfred Luseno 2-52)
beat Telca 206 (Thomas Odoyo 43, Newton Muthee 33, Prasanth ? 33, Rakep Patel 3-13, Rikesh Hirani 3-36, Ramesh Mepani 2-24)
by 46 runs
scorecard - Kanti Rabadia (Kanbis)


DIV 1:
Swamibapa B 250-8 defeated Kongonis Development XI 244-9 by 6 runs.
Report - Dominic Wesonga (Kongonis)

DIV II:
Straylions B played their first match with Golden XI in their Division B match at Highridge Primary School. Batting first, Golden XI were all out for 77. Ramesh Shamji took 5 wickets, Nadeem took 4 wickets and Girish Nair took one wicket. In Stray Lion's successful 77 run chase, Anand Ranganathan top scored with 45 runs.
Report - Thota Sreenivas (Stray Lions)

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