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When last Saturday’s 9th December final of the Creditwest Ladies Cricket League match at the Pia Bella Stadium started, all the teams were still in the hunt for the title. 90 minutes later, the cream had risen to the top, as the pre-match favourites Doğanköy Dollies dominated proceedings.
Last Saturday 10th June saw the West Ladies Cricket Team wrap up the inaugural Creditwest North Cyprus match with a comfortable win over their East rivals.
Val Maskell, East’s captain, won the toss and put the West into bat hoping for more luck than the previous week at the Pia Bella Stadium. She had said her team were determined to level the series by winning the second match.
West’s Captain Gina Mapp opened with Iranian, Ayttis Lilianna putting on a very credible 46 runs in the first 6 overs. Norwegian, Rannveig Ystaas then came to the crease with Steph Routledge and hammered 65 runs, their only blemish when Routledge was too slow in regaining her ground after an aborted run which cost the pair 5 runs. The East’s bowlers plugged away but mostly found wickets elusive, only Filipino, Gloria Garcia having any success going for 23 from her 3 overs. The West scored a total of 111 runs, which cricket lovers will know is referred to as a ‘Nelson’. The term made famous by the legendary England Umpire David Sheppard always standing on one leg when this score was reached.
The East set about the required run rate of 9.33/overs with Linda Hurley and Gloria Garcia reaching 31 after 3 overs and the crowd sensed a dramatic fight to the winning line. However, for their 4th over, Mapp bowled a very tight line and they could only manage 1 run, Further low scoring overs followed, with Ystaas’s over again going for only 1. Despite the batsmen’s best efforts they had only scored 40 runs at the half way point of their side’s innings. In other games it would have been a decent total, but they were facing a massive task.
Lynn Holman and Val Maskell now faced getting 12/overs, tough at any time, but against the strength of their opposition’s bowling it would require something special. They attacked from the first ball and in any other circumstances made good progress reaching 16 from their first two overs, but the required scoring rate continued to grow and with 24 balls remaining had become 2.33/balls. Their considerable experience told them they had nothing to lose, Holman led the charge throwing caution to the wind, looking for big shots off every ball, but each time she was out 5 runs were deducted and the task became harder, with 12 balls left the required rate had risen to 3.75/balls. A daunting figure in any form of cricket. In the final over bowled by Mapp 2 more wickets fell and the East finished losing by 42 runs.
Afterwards, TRNC captain Gina Mapp congratulated everyone on their outstanding season and looked forward to the return of Ladies cricket in September after the summer break.
For more information please call Gina on 0533 833 2069.
Last Saturday 3rd June saw the inaugural Creditwest North Cyprus Ladies series pitch West against East in a hard fought battle. The match was held at the Pia Bella stadium’s 5-a-side football pitch and was contested by teams of 4 players, a fast and furious format based upon indoor cricket.
TRNC captain Gina Mapp explained that following the North’s decisive wins last month against both the South Cyprus teams, they weren’t now able to field sides against us. So, as the cricket is amazing fun, we didn’t want it to die and therefore have created our own two match competition between players West of Girne and to the East.
West’s Steph Routledge and Lindsey Brown opened immediately smashed the bowling for 51 runs in their 4 overs. Next Ayttis Lilianna contributed 5, but the final pairing of Rannveig Ystaas and Gina Mapp added only 4 as the East’s Lynn Holman and Linda Hurley took a wicket apiece. Debutant Gloria Garcia kept the pressure on conceding only 5 runs from her bowling, followed by an outstandingly tight death over of -3 by Val Maskell. With each wicket being scored as minus 5 runs, it kept the West’s final score in check at 55.
East’s reply got off to a promising start, but accurate bowling from Routledge and Ystaas didn’t allow Holman and Maskell to make a big enough inroad into the total within their 4 overs. Ayttis Lilianna bowling her own loopy style was also difficult to score off. The pressure of getting 34 runs for victory proved too much for the final pair of Garcia and Hurley. They attacked bravely, but Hurley was out a couple of times to good balls from both Routledge and Mapp which put the score beyond them, leaving a final total of 28.
Afterwards, coach Nigel Holman added it’s a great shame we couldn’t play against South Cyprus, but having our own competition had created a high level match, with outstanding personal performances, for example our 3 strike bowlers of Brown, Maskell and Routledge, bowling only one wide between them and Mapp taking a reaction catch with the ball being deflected of the roof netting.
11am at Pia Bella next Saturday will see the final match in the series with the West looking for revenge. Anyone interested in playing or watching is very welcome. For more information please call Gina on 0533 833 2069.
Left to right :Back row: Bill Brown (umpire), Ayttis Lilianna, Val Maskell, Lindsey Brown, Rannveig Ystaas, Nigel Holman (umpire), Kevin Mapp (scorer)
Front row: Steph Routledge, Lynn Holman, Gina Mapp, Gloria Garcia, Linda Hurley
On Sunday 21st May, the Gentlemen of Girne lost their match against The Ozanköy Cricket Club and the Gentlemen of Girne failed to qualify for the final. The Lefkosa Legends and the Ozanköy Cricket Club then went head to head for 2017 Spring Creditwest Cricket League final.
Legends Captain, Muhammad Haseeb winning the toss elected to bat first. Lefkosa Legends openers, Slaman Khan and Muhammad Abid made a very sensible start with 45 runs in 5 overs with a loss of no wickets. The most important partnership from Lefkosa Legends was from Salman Khan who scored the first ever “Century” (101 runs) with a help of 9 sixes and 6 fours, Legends Captain, Muhammad Haseeb 7 runs, Bazid 13 runs and Shabir Ahmed who scored a useful 11 runs and it was a brilliant finish and defendable total of 208 runs in 20 overs from Lefkosa Legends.
In reply, to 209 runs target, The Ozanköy Cricket Club opener didn’t start well and it was Muhammad Bilal who walked to the pavillion in the 3rd over with only 19 runs and after that Osman scored 31 runs, with help of 4 sixes and 1 four and Gaffar 24 runs with the help of 3 fours and 1 six,
But it was not over for the Legends, Idress from Legends struck the first wickets, in the 3rd over and that was the time when they came back into the game, and Ozanköy was in trouble with 80 runs in 10 overs with a loss of 3 wickets. Slowly and gradually the Ozanköy batsmen brothers, Muhammad Irfan scored 31 runs with the help of 3 sixes and 2 fours and Muhammad Imran scored 38 runs with the help of 3 sixes and 3 fours.
That was the turning point and match winning partnership. It was a thrilling match and a joy to watch. Ozanköy batsman, Muhammad Imran hits Legends bowler’s deliveries brutally and completely took the game away from the Legends. The Ozanköy Cricket Club then went on to win the final by three wickets in 18 overs and became the new champions for Creditwest 2017 Spring Cricket League.
The new Creditwest TRNC Cricket season will start in September 2017,
For more information go to Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Cricket Club Facebook page click here or Contact Chairman of TRNC Cricket Association Danish Afridi.
Telephone: 0548 890 4835 or email danisheen2001@yahoo.com
Last Sunday the 7th May, saw the first match between Middle East Technical University vs Near East University which was held at the Bellapais ground. Winning the toss, Masroor Ahmed the Near East University, Captain invited Middle East Technical University to bat first.
METU made a very grumpy start when they went 6 wickets down in six overs with a total of 62 runs in 9 overs with Captain, Muzzamil and tail ender hitting a strong 38 runs. Now it was looking like NEU had good prospects of a win but METU came back into the game with a help of their strong hitter Nihal with 16 runs, Khalid with 10 and Danial with 15 useful runs to give a defendable target of 151 runs in 20 overs.
In reply to 151 runs, the NEU didn’t look confident at all, when both openers were confused by the brilliant bowling performances from the METU bowlers. NEU were continuously losing wickets and .the only resistance showed, was from all-rounder Adeel but still that was not good enough. After Adeel lost his wicket it was obvious that METU had stamped their 3 victory in the Creditwest Spring 2017 Cricket League.
The second match held was between the home team, Gentlemen of Girne against guest team, Eastern Mediterranean University. Danish Afridi, the Captain of Gentlemen of Girne, repeated his tradition of winning the toss and invited EMU Captain, Sohail Khilji to bat first.
Once again the Gentlemen openers and top order failed to provide a good start, when it went 4 wickets down in just six overs with a total score of 20 runs. EMU looked in a very strong position at this time but Waqas Ahmed scored 12 runs, on the 5th wicket, and after that it was a match turning performance, by SajjadKamal who scored 32 runs with help of 4 sixes and 1 four and Ather Mir scored 46 runs with help of 6 sixes, and 2 fours. That gave great confidence to Gentlemen hitters Wajid with 14 and Ali not out on 13 runs and the Gentlemen were all out in 18 overs with total of 158 runs.
In reply to 158 runs, EMU didn’t make a very good start when EMU Majid Khan was caught behind on the beautiful out swing bowling delivery by Janwali Khan and EMU were in trouble. After that Sohail Khilji, Captain of EMU, came out to rescue his team, but the luck was not with EMU when Khilji gave a straight catch to Gentlemen’s Captain Danish Afridi in short cover, and EMU were now in bigger trouble. At this time Gentlemen’s Captain, Danish Afridi brought in his team magician Shahzad Malik, the left arm spin bowler who completely destroyed EMU and they were all out on 82 runs in 17 overs giving the Gentlemen a good come back win in the Creditwest Spring Cricket League 2017,
Next Sunday matches on the 14th of May, 09:00 am, Gentlemen of Girne and Ozankoy Cricket Team and at 13:00 pm the Lefkosa Legends vs Eastern Mediterranean University
For more information go to Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Cricket Club Facebook page click here or Contact Chairman of TRNC Cricket Association Danish Afridi
Telephone: 0548 890 4835 or email danisheen2001@yahoo.com
