SPANISH NATIONAL FINALS
Cataluyna Cricket Club were crowned the Forty Overs National Champions of Spain last weekend after overcoming St George CC of Lanzarote and Pinatar Pirates of the ECCL in a triangular tournament played over three days.
The first day of the three day event was a contest between St George and Lanzarote. The team from the Gran Canarias won the toss and decided to bat first. Unfortunately they failed to impress with the bat and were bowled out for just 133 runs. Gilly Singh top scored with 24 runs, whilst Paul Hennessy ended up with bowling figures of three for 20.
Pinatar cruised to victory, knocking off the total with six wickets to spare. Kuldeep Lal hit a half century for the victors, whilst Rory Ellison took three of the four Pinatar wickets to fall in an excellent spell of spin bowling that yielded only 23 runs.
The following day St George were back in action again, this time against Cataluyna Cricket Club. The Catalans won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first. Opener Yasir Ali showed his class with a wonderful century and he was well supported by Ali Bhatti who hit a quick fire half century. The Cataluyna innings closed on 245 for 5.
St George struggled against such a competitive score and totalled 142 for 6 from their 40 over allocation. Adam French was the backbone of his teams innings scoring a fine 63 not out. Spain Under 19 bowler Nadeem Hussain took three for 19 in his teams 103 run victory.
With one win each the winner of the Pinatar v Cataluyna CC contest would be crowned National Champions. Catalan captain Yasir Ali once again won the toss and decided to bat. He followed up his 100 in the game against St George with another fine century. With fellow opener Khurram they put on 143 for the first wicket. This set the tone for a strong Cataluyna total and they finally ended on 278 all out in the penultimate over.
Pinatar openers Ravi Panchal and Stuart Simkins started cautiously but frustrated the Cataluyna bowlers for the first twelve overs. With the score on 44 Simkins was the first out caught. The two Catalans in the Pinatar side Kuldeep Lal and Vinod Vini played well for 34 and 35 respectively but the Pirates main hopes remained with Panchal.
Panchal was eventually bowled by Khurram for 83 when he tried to up the run rate. At that point it seemed the title was destined for Cataluyna. Despite batsmen nine, ten and eleven for the Pirates frustrating the Catalans and keeping the score ticking along it was Cataluyna’s day and the Pirates were finally all out in the 38th over for 248.
Cataluyna return to the Woodbridge Oval next Saturday to contest the T20 National Finals with Sporting Alfas
Cataluyna CC 278 all out beat Pinatar Pirates 248 all out by 30 runs.
CATALUYNA CC — SPANISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONS 2018