Gawand has a ball

With the rains thankfully staying away completely,the opening day of the 65th Dr H D Kanga Cricket League saw full action across all seven divisions.

With the rains thankfully staying away completely,the opening day of the 65th Dr H D Kanga Cricket League saw full action across all seven divisions,and the spoils belonged entirely to the bowlers. Wickets fell in a heap at almost all the venues with batting proving to be an increasingly difficult task.

And the bowler who had the biggest laugh on what proved to be a field day for a majority of his ilk was medium-pacer Atish Gawand of National Cricket Club as he finished with a remarkable match-haul of 13 wickets for 18 runs in a Division A contest at Cross Maidan. National began the match in poor fashion being bowled out for just 71. But the wicket at Cross Maidan has always had a notorious reputation for being a bowler-friendly venue. And Gawand proved that fact here with the most outstanding of spells,8/14 in five overs,to destroy Apollo and bowl them out for just 36. National then quickly reached 64/5 in their second essay to set Apollo a target of 100. Gawand was back to his destructive best again,as he finished the day with figures of 5/4. But his efforts weren’t enough to hand National an outright win and they had to settle for one on based on the first innings lead with Apollo reaching 16/5 at the close of play.

Outof-favour Mumbai left-arm pacers Rahil Shaikh and Saurabh Netravalkar,meanwhile,too made the most of favourable conditions to end up with five-wicket hauls for their respective teams in Division ‘A’. Shaikh returned figures of 5/22 for Payyade,who escaped to a first innings win,thanks mainly to the 15 penalty runs imposed on MIG for bowling an over short . Shaikh’s spell ensured that MIG could only muster 103 in their innings and while Payyade only reached 100 for 8 by close of play,the penalty runs helped them post a victory.

Netravalkar’s 5/51 too wasn’t enough to give Parkophene a win against Mumbai Police. A Shaikh scored a valiant 46 to take Mumbai Police to 164,with Netravalkar,who played a handful games for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy a couple of years ago,starring with the ball. Parkophene then reached 91 for 2 with Jay Bista remaining unbeaten on 49.

Another seamer who shone was Amit Rao of Karnataka S A as he finished with splendid figures of 5/6 in six overs and played a huge role in Cricket Club of India being shot out for 42. That gave his team first innings points after Karnataka had declared their innings on 116/5 with Sachin Wagh scoring one of the very few half-centuries of the day. Wagh scored 54 in as many balls in an aggressive knock that included four sixes and three fours at Cross Maidan.

But there was one batsman though who stood up to this utter domination of the bowlers,and that was Aditya Dhumal who scored the only century of the day for Sind Cricket Club in a Division B encounter against Parsee Gymkhana at their home ground.

The southpaw opener made 106 off just 90 balls and hit five sixes and 11 fours. He was also involved in a eighth wicket stand of 91 with Narendra Ambhavne that helped his side reach 196.

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The match though ended in a draw with Parsee Gymkhana finishing on 131 for 4. Mandar Mayekar of Sunder Cricket Club was the bowling star in Division C as he recorded figures of 7/9 against P J Hindu Gymkhana who were knocked out for just 37 at Cross Maidan.

Brief Scores

Division ‘A’: MIG 103 (Kevin Almeda 31,Amit Dani 36 n.o.; Rahil Shaikh 5/22) lost to Payyade 115 for 8 (Parag Khanapurkar 45; Murtuza Hussain 4/25) on first innings; National 71 (Rakesh Pawar 4/31,Aslam Sarguru 3/5) and 64 for 5 bt Apollo 36 (Atish Gawand 8/14) and 16 for 5 (Atish Gawand 5/ 4) on first innnings; Karnataka SA 116 for 5 decl. (Sachin Wagh 54; Harshal Soni 3/17) bt CCI 42 (Akbar Khan 4/20,Amit Rao 6/5) on the first innings; Victory 122 (Rajiv Mehra 45; Javed Khan 4/67,Mandar Phadke 4/24) drew with Shivaji Park Youngsters 67 for 5 (A Palkar 3/11); New Hind 79 (Rohit Pawar 30; Manish Rao 5/20,Pratik Manjrekar 3/26) and 9 for 3 lost to Fort Vijay 91 for 3 (Vishal Chitrakar 46 n.o.) on first innings; Young Friends 117 (Gaurav Jathar 3/37) and 32 for 2 lost to Shivaji Park Gymkhana 119 for 2 decl. (Onkar Gurav 37 n.o.,N Rathod 34 n.o.) on first innings; Mumbai Police 164 (A Shaikh 46; Saurabh Netrawalkar 5/51) drew with Parkophene 91 for 2 (Jay Bista 49 n.o.); Division ‘B’: Maskati 37 (Atul Singh 4/18) lost to Worli 51 for 3; D Y Patil 79 (A Parsekar 4/16) and 85 for 3 (Vineet Indulkar 42 n.o.) bt Kandivali 55 (Abey Kuruvilla 4/20,Praveen Tambe 3/21) on the first innings; Sind 196 (Aditya Dhumal 106; M Gandhi 5/36) drew with Parsee Gymkhana 131 for 4 (D Ganatra 33,V Parab 33); Parel Sporting 126 for 7 decl. (Ninad Kadam 38,Ninad Boekar 35) drew with Young Maharashtra 89 for 5 (Shivam Dubey 31 n.o.); Sunrise 67 (Narendra Diwane 4/8,B Narkhede 3/18) drew with Dadar Parsee Zorastrian 38 for 8 (A Hasabnis 4/8,Amit Pandey 4/10); Jolly Cricketers 44 (A Patil 3/5,J Deorukhkar 3/16) and 73 for 3 lost to Sainath 88 for 4 decl. (Harish Narvekar 37; Ankit Naik 3/29) on first innings; Young Mohamedon 63 (Naushad Khan 38; Navin Patil 3/16,Bharat Patil 4/4) and 20 for 4 lost to Muslim United 102 for 6 decl. (Aslam Shaikh 42; Kadir Patel 3/18); Division ‘C’ : John Bright 77 (Jay Tandel 5/22) and 16 for 3 bt Evergreen 64 (Nitin Surve 4/25; A Niam 3/15) on first innings; Palghar Dahanu 109 for 6 decl. (Randhir Tandel 33; K Hangewadi 3/35) drew with Dadar Parsee Colony 39 for 4 (Tushar.Gharat 3/3) and 72 for 3 (Amit Pal 30) bt P J Hindu Gymkhana 27; Young Comrade 137 (P Kavadi 35; Sandeep Pawar 5/34,D Kamte 3/41) drew with United Cricketers 93 for 8 (R Ruke 41; Sandeep Jadhav 4/32); Sunder 81 (A Sayyad 6/35,N Keni 3/18) and 72 for 3 (Amit Pal 30) bt P J Hindu Gymkhana 37 (Mandar Mayrkar 7/9) on first innings; Gaud Saraswat 85 for 4 decl. (Sumit Malapurkar 39) drew with Dadar Union 12 for no loss; Islam Gymkhana 53 (A Tapase 4/18,Bharat Meher 3/14) and 21 for no loss lost to Regal 121 (Bharat Meher 39; Samad Akhtar 5/18,H Kadam 4/32) on first innings; Regent 92 (Rohan Raje 5/9,Bharat Karnik 3/34) and 29 for 4 lost to Khar Gymkhana 99 for 4 decl. (Sachin Vichare 70 n.o.) on first innings.

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