Scorecard

Antwerp Indians CC v Optimists Cricket Club 1st XI on Sun 24 Apr 2011 at 15:30
Optimists Cricket Club Won

Match report On Easter Sunday, the Optimists 1st XI took part in the new look BCL format for 2011 which for the first time incorporates a T20 league as well as the normal 45 over cricket.
Antwerp Indians 2nd XI were to be our first opponents and upon arriving at Antwerp on a beautiful sunny day, skipper Mees lost the toss and the Optimists were fielding.
AICC made a solid start with opener Shah scoring a classy 67. As per usual with the first game of the season, the Optimists fielding was not spectacular with quite a few catches being put down and bowling 19 wides in a T20 game is unacceptable. However, after 13 overs, the AICC were on 113-4 when Deepak Gianchandani was introduced into the attack. He quickly dismissed the opener, Shah with a fine catch from Arvind Pandey and went on to decimate the lower order with his off-spin, ending the day with figures of 5-25. A fantastic performance that meant the AICC scored 166 off their 20 overs.
In reply, Samir Kalra and Joost Mees opened. Kalra went quickly which brought Richard Neale to the crease only for him to smash a long hop down point’s throat. With the score at 7 for 2 off 3 overs, we needed a couple of heroes! They came in the form of skipper, Mees and Taral Desai.
Mees started the onslaught with some exquisite stroke play and powerful hitting that the young guns from AICC 2nds were left rather perplexed in what to do next. The run-rate accelerated rapidly and Mees celebrated his 50 off only 23 balls. Desai was ably supporting Mees with some good shots of his own and carefully guided singles until he too decided to get in on the action and was soon cutting and driving the AICC to all parts of the ground as well!
It was an excellent batting display that the Optimists have not seen for a few seasons. So when Mees finally went on 96 and Desai on 57, it was left for Suresh Kalagara and Tim Andrews to score the winning runs.
A brilliant start to our Belgian League campain and lets hope the team can build on this in both formats of the game.

R.Neale

Antwerp Indians CC Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
166 (0.0 overs)		     
Nirvam Shah ct  A.Pandey bowled Gian'dani 67
Sherul Mehta ct  S.Finch bowled Kalagara 3
Shamin Shah run out  Kalagara /Gianchandani 1
Virat Jogani ct  S.Kalagara bowled Gian'dani 19
Shaival Mehta Not Out  41
Shalin Shah b  Gianchandani 3
Chirag Motani lbw  Gianchandani 3
Shashank Kotham ct  and bowled Gianchandani 0
Yash Shah Run out  4
Devendra Not Out  1
   

Optimists Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Suresh Kalagara4.0026126.006.50
Taral Desai4.002300.005.75
Richard Neale4.002700.006.75
Phillip Burleigh3.004200.0014.00
Arvind Pandey2.002200.0011.00
Deepak Gianchandani3.002555.008.33
Tim Andrews0.00000.000.00
Sebastian Finch0.00000.000.00

Optimists Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
167		        
Samir Kalra Bowled  1
Joost Mees Bowled  96
Richard Neale Caught  0
Taral Desai Bowled  57
Suresh Kalagara Not Out  0 1
Tim Andrews Not Out  4
Sebastian Finch   1
Phillip Burleigh  
Benjamin Lougheed  
Arvind Pandey   1
Deepak Gianchandani   2 1

Antwerp Indians CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

  • Umpire :
  • Scorer :
    Mick Swithinbank