Cricket: The Glorious Sound of Leather on Willow
UNDER glorious blue skies, what could be better than the sound of leather on willow in the majestic grounds of Alsancak!
The TRNC Autumn 2016, Creditwest cricket League has started officially. Two new teams, Cyprus Lions and Lefke European University, including the biggest rivals (3 times TRNC Creditwest Cricket Champions) The Gentleman of Girne, and Creditwest 2016 Spring League Champions, Eastern Mediterranean University, plus the passionate Near East University and some very talented Cricket engineers from the Middle East Technical University. Every team will play other teams and in total each team will play five matches.
There will be a Final between the top two teams. The winner of the Autumn 2016 Creditwest League and the winner of the Spring 2016 Creditwest Cricket League will play for the Creditwest TRNC Cricket champion trophy, and the winner will then qualify for Creditwest 2016 Cyprus Champions trophy.
The first match of TRNC Cricket Association was played between Gentlemen of Girne Vs Lefke European University and LEU captain, Farman Khan won the toss and elected to bat. The new young team made a very good start against the experienced Gentlemen with no wickets for 65 in six overs. But it didn’t take long for Gentlemen to break the partnership and destroy LEU completely, when bowler Shahzad Malik showed his magic to the young LEU side taking six wickets for ten runs and then LEU were all out for 89 Runs.
In reply to 89 runs, Gentlemen’s new opener batsmen Janwali Khan made a very solid start and played a remarkable innings with 36 runs not out, with the help of 4 fours and 1 six, and Bilal Afridi made 29 runs, with the help of 2 sixes and 2 fours, which sealed for the Gentlemen a confirmed victory in the Creditwest Cricket league. The Gentlemen of Girne captain, Danish Afridi was delighted with his team’s performance..
The next match was between Cyprus Lions from Lefkosa and the Middle East Technical University from Guzelyurt at 13: 00pm at the Yesil Yova sport ground, Alsancak, METU captain Muzammil won the toss and elected to bat first. METU then looked in trouble when they had lost their 4 wickets by only 67 runs but with great effort from everyone, METU succeeded in setting a defendable target of 145 runs. The top score from METU was Maz with 26 runs and METU were happy with their batting performance because they knew that they have a very strong bowling side.
In reply to 145 runs, Cyprus Lions didn’t look confident at all. When they lost 3 wickets for 35 runs. After that, the middle order led by Muhammad Usman and Muhammad Imran stood solid like a mountain against the METU strong bowling attack, and the Lions fought back and took the game away from METU, when there was only 35 runs left in six overs for the Lions to win their first match. But once again METU proved that the METU bowling is their strongest weapon and Daniyal took 3 wickets in one over. Nahal was METU best bowler, and he took the most important wickets and helped METU to win their first Match against Lions in the Creditwest Cricket League.
Cricket in Cyprus is growing in strength for its third year and the TRNC Cricket Association welcome all readers to support them to promote greater Cricket in TRNC.
The TRNC Cricket Association offer an opportunity, to support TRNC Cricket Association, by participating as umpires at Adult games and full training will be provided Those local readers who are interested, should contact the Umpires manager Phil Lucock on:0533 863 8499
Next Sunday 16th Octuber, The first match is going to start 09:30, at Bellapais Football Ground. This match will be between the Lefke European University V Eastern Mediterranean University, A second match will be played at 12:00pm, between the North Cyprus Ladies Vs South Cyprus Ladies, and third match 14:30pm will be, between The Gentlemen of Girne Vs The Near East University.
For more information go to Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Cricket Club Facebook page click here or Contact Danish Afridi Telephone: 0548 8884 835 or 0548 890 4835 or email danisheen2001@yahoo.com
how about a ladies team ?
Hi Flora,
If you read this article it mentions the Creditwest TRNC ladies Cricket team who are playing shortly We also published an article recently about their visit to the south to play a match.