Round 4 Four Day Reports

[Tim]

Karachi on a roll

Karachi have continued to impress under new coach Tim Evans with a close and well fought win over FreeState.

FreeState batted first and were looking in trouble at 6/104 before a quickfire 74 from Bakkes got the homeside through to 227.
Fernando impressed with the ball for Karachi taking 5/17 off his 9 overs.

Karachi's opening pair of Stead & Fernando then did an excellent job of setting up the reply scoring 48 & 86 respectively.
However the middle order failed & Karachi only managed to reach 266.
Balaji took 4/51 including the important wickets of McMillan, Wagh & Javed.

Freestate then began their 2nd innings in much better fashion with Leibenberg constructing a well made 85. However he had little support with only Mahesh (33) & Van der Gucht (31) making significant contributions.
Mahmood took 3/40 as Freestate were wrapped up for 247 with Karachi requiring just over 200 runs to win the match.

Karachi began nervously and at one stage looked in deep trouble at 5/94..Fernando had made 37 & Stevens had cracked 70 but Karachi were down to 7/186 and still required another 30 or so runs to win. Pollock & Mahmood managed to negotiate the tricky period & Karachi won by 3 wickets.

Fernando was once again named man of the match for his excellent batting & devastating bowling in Freestates first innings.

Coach Tim Evans once again praised all of his players for playing collectively and gutsing it out.
"Everyone made significant contributions in this match although I thought our middle order needed to show a bit more application. Fernando has made huge strides for Karachi & is fast becoming a world class player, I also though Darren Stevens showed excellent temprement during his 2nd innings when we were on the ropes.
At this stage I don't think we have any injury concerns heading into our Knockout Cup tie with Surrey next week."

 

[nibbs]

In Warwickshires first home match for a while the home side surprisingly struggled.

Put into bat they were bundled for 162. A poor effort with only, the in form Anderson offering any help with 49.

When Tasmania came into the home sides bowlers lacked their usual penetration. Tasmania were eventually bowled out for 277, with a nice lead of 115 runs.

Warwickshires under pressure came out and batted well, reaching 253/2. Anderson, Sriram, Howarth and Hemanath KUmar all made half-centuries but all failed to go on. Warwickshire were bowled out for 355. A respectable total, but the question was, was it enough.

Set 242 to win Tasmania were under pressure at 74/3. But good knocks from Knights and Rudolph put the came beyond Warwickshires reach as Tasmania scored a 5 wicket win.

A disapointing loss which throws the division three four day race wide open. Warwickshire hold onto their lead, but Tasmania are only 6 points behind. Glamorgan have charged into third and are 12 points behind the leaders while two quiet weeks fro Leicester see them slump into fourth, 17 points behind the Bears. Worcester are far from out of contention only 23 behind the leaders. However Northern Districts are another story. The are yet to score a single point...

 

[age_master]

Colts vs SOmerset

Many predicted that this match would be one sided, but the aim was to play this match like a final to avoid another ebmarassing loss to a lesser side

after winning the toss and sending SOmerset into bat Faisca and Shaw were rewarded early wickets. the somerset innings never really took off as they were bowler out for 232. only Lathwell (36) and Morris (62) provided any resistance. Fasica was the pick of the bowlers taking 5-83.

Bulbeck than set us back removing both Sharath and singh cheaply before Shewag and Anderson set about rebuilding the innings, these 2 powered along at over 5 rpo before shewag was removed for 66(65 balls) and Anderson shortly after for 44 (56 balls). unfortunatley this was near the end of the colts resistance as the rest of the order crumbling around new-found batsman G Shaw who made 39 not out in another solid batting display.

with a lead of just 7 runs we knew that wickets were a must. Faisza again obliges taking 4-47. he was well backed up by shaw and Noffke whop took 2 wickets each. Bulbeck was the ony batsman with impact making a qickfire 43. SOmerset 173 all out


We crusied to victory from here with the only slight setback being Sharath's first ball dismissal. Singh top scored with 88 as we won the game by 7 wickets

"Colts 13pts walkover Somerset 0pts"

 

[Simon]

ACT wins top of the table clash

ACT travelled to Zimbabwe to take on top of the table Mashonaland. After some recent good performances both sides were hoping to put in a strong display and cement their position in the top 2 of the 4 day ladder.
Mashonaland batted first and made a very impressive 448. Their innings included 2 century makers, Rogers (111) and T Petal (109) combined in a 207 run stand which proved to be the highligh of the innings. E Smith (65) and D Fulton (48) also made good contributions at the top of the order.
Kent French (4/118), Matt Ramage (3/76) and Simon Mann (2/91) were the wicket takers for the Comets.
ACT overhauled Mashonalands first innings total before a few late wickets kept the match interesting.
Sean Maxwell made another massive cenutry, this time 180 to go with his 258 not out in the last 4 day game. Cade Brown kept his season average in the high fifties with a solid 67, Dawson (46*) and Christian Hanna (42) also helped the ACT total get to 483.
T Petal took 4 wickets for Mashonaland, Watamba also chipped in with 3.
Mashonaland made a dissapointing 217 in their 2nd innings and really threw away any chance of winning the match. A Petal (44) and E Smith (42) were the only solid contributers to a poor total.
Ramage and Shane Watson took 3 wickets each.
WicketKeeper David Dawson amassed 8 match dissmisals.
ACT knocked off the 184 runs 7 wickets down late on day 4 to win by 3 wickets. Ben Southam (64*) steered the innings beautifully and combined well with Dawson (48) in a 104 run stand for the 7th wicket.
T Petal took a further 3 wickets during ACT's 2nd innings.
for the 2nd match running, Sean Maxwell Was Awarded Man of the Match for a brilliant century.
Manager Simon Fitzsimmons was quoted, "I'm very happy with the boys performance this round, it was a critical game in the division. i am proud of their performance and delighted to be on top of the table now". " Everyone contributed in this game and the all round balance of the side is looking good, we will relax next week with a few friendlies".
ACT are expected to rest some stars this week as well as try to play some back into form.

 

[Paid The Umpire]

Tassie on a good thing

After sending in Warwickshire, F Akram took another 5fa as Tassie bowled out the top team for only 162.

Chasing the score Tassie got to 277 all out wiht only Knight and Evans scoring (60's to the pair). A lead of 115.

A high quality top order innings from Warwick's scored them 357, with Murlie taking 4fa and Canning 3. Tassie need 243 to win.

A cruise in effect... after being 3-74 a good 95* by Knight gives the game to TASSIE!

 

[Graham]

LANCASHIRE GAIN CRUCIAL WIN AT WA

WA batted first and were rolled for a disappointing 176 all out. Only J.Langer (43) and D.Ostler (42) looked likely as veteran Lancashire paceman A.Dale returned impressive figures of 5/38.

Lancashire scored 329 all out in reply to establish a handy first innings lead of 153 runs. It wasn’t looking so good at 170/6 with only K.Baumgarner (43) and R.Dravid (30) being the only top order batsmen to contribute, but a wonderful innings from pace bowler E.Kellar (72no) aided by M.Mendis (42) and that man A.Dale (34) enabled the innings to build to 329 all out.
S.Hazare (3/60) and P.Peters (2/47) were the best of the home side’s bowlers.

The WA batsmen again struggled to impose themselves in the second innings with Z.Keegan (51), D.Martyn (48), A.Gilchrist (48) and J.Langer (40) all getting good starts, but failing to go on with the job. With WA dismissed for 279 all out, the visiting Lancashire side would require just 129 for victory. All of the Lancashire pacemen did their bit with M.Rice (3/60), E.Kellar (3/65) and A.Dale (3/82) sharing in the spoils.

The Lancashire opening batsmen A.Schiller (57) and M.Ramprakash (47) got their side through to 113/2 leaving K.Baumgarner and R.Dravid to polish things off at 129/2.

An impressive and crucial win to the visiting Lancashire team by 8 wickets with A.Dale taking out man of the match.


WA – 176 and 279
LANCASHIRE – 329 and 129/2