Kowloon Cricket Club (KCC) and Pakistan Association AMSUA had big wins in the final 2-Day matches played last Saturday and Sunday (April 27 and 28) to conclude Premier Division matches for the 2012-13 season.
These wins leave KCC 2-Day Premier League champions with 63 points and Pakistan Association runners-up on 41.68 points. HKCC were third on 28.08 points and Little Sai Wan Cricket Club (LSW) fourth on 21.95 points.
It has been another good year for KCC, who also won the Hong Kong Cricket Association Premier League 1-Day series and came second in the Premier T20 series. KCC’s Templars team also won the Sunday League Cup (knock-out format) and only lost the Sunday Championship League title because of a deduction of points due to an administrative error in registering a player.
Pakistan Association AMSUA have also done well in winning the Hong Kong Cricket Association Premier T20 series and being runners up in both the 1-Day and 2-Day series.
2-Day Match Results
At the HKCC ground last weekend, Pakistan Association AMSUA scored 229 runs, sufficient to take the first innings points.
Their captain, T. Afzal scored 134 before being caught by S.J. Lowe off the bowling of J. Subramanyan. In the second innings they amassed a total of 516 runs. B. Hayat was run out for 187 and K.H. Butt scored 143 runs before being caught by C.K. Kruger off the bowling of A.T. Norwood. I. Ahmed scored 54. T. Afzal was 37 not out.
HKCC were dismissed for 112 in the first innings and had reached 3 for 113 at stumps in the second innings. A Khan took 6 wickets for 46 runs in the match.
At the KCC ground, LSW batted first and scored 233 in their first innings, N.M. Khan and W. Kahn both missed their half centuries by one run.
In reply KCC made 188 for two wickets and were looking like they would make a big total, but then lost wickets quickly and were all out for 254—a lead of just 21 runs.
In the second innings LSW were dismissed cheaply making just 105. KCC did the damage with a combination of pace and spin in the form of A. Haider and K.C. Shah. Haider took 3 wickets for 47; meanwhile, in a remarkable spell of seven overs, spinner Shah took 5 wickets for 7 runs.
KCC secured victory by nine wickets with R.J. Campbell 21 not out and A. Shama hitting 54 not out, off 15 balls.
International
On the international scene the Hong Kong men’s team reached the Semi-final of the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes competition beating Australia and England in the Group A round robin matches, but lost to South Africa in the Group A match and in the Semi-Final.
Hong Kong also had a good round robin series in the ACC Twenty20 2013 Cup in early April winning all four matches against Malaysia, Nepal, Maldives and Singapore, but were not able to beat Afghanistan in the Semi-final and lost to UAE in the third/fourth playoff match.
The Hong Kong women’s team won their three key matches at the ACC Women’s Championships in January in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to give them a place in the 2014 Asian Games to be held at Incheon, South Korea in September-October 2014. They beat Malaysia, UAE and Bhutan to take them through to the Semi-finals, but finished fourth in the competition, losing to China and then to Nepal in the third/fourth playoff.
