COMBINED COLLEGES TAME MALAGA

Southern Spanish Cricket League

Combined CCC v Malaga CC  27 June 2010.                              Won by Combined CCC by 47 Runs.

Combined CCC won the toss and elected to Bat.

Combined CCC 195 for 6, 17 points.                  Malaga CC 148 all out, 5 points.

This match saw a new opening pair for Combined Colleges.  Ashan Alwis was clearly in a hurry, clouting the first ball of the match away for four.  He hurried back to the hutch four balls later, holing out to Atif in the deep from another clout.  Shame he didn’t stay long enough to appreciate how much better the wicket was playing following his efforts (among seven others!) last Sunday in re-laying the plastic wicket. 

His opening partner Kasun Herath adopted a different style, curbing his naturally audacious talent to stay around for 18 overs while he made 53 careful runs.  His natural exuberance finally got the better of him, as he played an aggressive shot across the line to be bowled by a straight one.  Malaga’s early bowlers demanded respect from the batsmen, sending Sham and Nushan packing by the tenth over. 

This brought in Previn Menon who has had a pretty lean time at the crease of late.  He was no doubt pleased to be back on track today, rattling up 59.  His partnership of 71 with Kasun took just seven overs and was the base from which Combined Colleges went to score 195.  Azard Thajudeen kept him company, scoring 22 not out on the way.

After the interval a small breeze had sprung up.  Malaga can count themselves unlucky to be on the receiving end of a spell of swing bowling seldom seen in this part of the world.  Was it the breeze?  Was it the ball?  (From the same box as the one bowled by Malaga).  Was it the skill of the bowlers?  (Then why have they kept their talent so well hidden before?).  Whatever it was, almost from the off the ball was swinging away from the right hander.

Sameer Bagewdi in particular was finding prodigious amounts of swing.  He bowled Baber Rashid in the seventh over with a ball which swung back, lifted and moved off the seam in a manner which could have dismissed anyone.  It was his opening partner Anwar ul Hassan with subtler, less pronounced movement, who took three of the four wickets to fall in the first eight overs.  So it was that afer eight overs, Malaga were reeling at 27 for 4. 

Shahid Iqbal  and Atif steadied the boat, then the swing died away as the shine came off the ball.  Their partnership of 26 may not seem a lot but in the context of the game it was an important contribution.  When these two departed  in successive overs things were looking bleak again for Malaga.  Kazam Ali thought otherwise and blasted 35 in just six overs to sow a tiny seed of doubt into the minds of the opposition.  Dogged resistance and a couple of mighty blows from “El Presidente” Shabih ul Hassan took the score on to 148 before he finally fell, bowled by Mark Ward in the24th over.

I see four candidates for man of the match.  Kasun Herath for his careful opening batting and 53 runs.  Previn Menon for his 59 later in the innings.  Kazam Ali for his quickfire 35 and 1 for 43.  Anwar (why do they call him Henry?) ul Hassan for his 3 for 11 at the start of Malaga’s reply.  The award goes to Anwar.

                            P    W    T   NR    L   BP  Pts
Combined Colleges           7    4    0    1    2   50  100
Cordoba                     6    3    0    0    3   41   71
Malaga                      7    2    0    1    4   26   56

• Combined Colleges (17) beat Malaga (5) by 47 runs.
  Malaga, 27 June.
  Combined Colleges 195-6 (25.0 overs, P Menon 59, K Herath 53)
  Malaga 148 (24.0 overs, Kazam Ali 35, Anwar 3-11)
• Combined Colleges (17) beat Malaga (0) as Malaga refused to complete the match.
  Malaga, 13 June.
• Cordoba (2) lost to Combined Colleges (19) by 7 wickets.
  Cordoba, 6 June.
  Cordoba 87 (24.0 overs, B Girling 3-14, S Bagewdi 3-23)
  Combined Colleges 91-3 (19.3 overs, N Alwis 36)
• Cordoba (19) beat Malaga (4) by 180 runs.
  Cordoba, 30 May.
  Cordoba 241-9 (35.0 overs, Raza Adil 53, Amjad Ali 3-17)
  Malaga 51 (13.3 overs, S Hussein 3-10, T Mehmood 3-17)
• Cordoba (20) beat Combined Colleges (5) by 147 runs.
  Cordoba, 23 May.
  Cordoba 276-6 (35.0 overs, S Hussein 141*)
  Combined Colleges 129 (24.0 overs, Mark Ward 48*, Imran Butt 5-21)
• Combined Colleges (4) lost to Malaga (17) by 3 wickets.
  Malaga, 16 May.
  Combined Colleges 108 (23.0 overs, Asif Tarar 3-18, Shahib 3-19, Kazam 3-14)
  Malaga 111-7 (20.0 overs, Waqas Ali 66, B Barnett 3-36)
• Malaga (17) beat Cordoba (6) by 34 runs.
  Cordoba, 8 May.
  Malaga 152 (27.0 overs, Waqas Ali 45, Waqas Ahmed 4-14, Shoaib Hussein 4-20)
  Cordoba 118 (19.0 overs, Asif Tarar 5-24, Waqas Ali 3-51)
• Cordoba (18) beat Malaga (7) by 25 runs.
  Malaga, 2 May.
  Cordoba 191 (33.0 overs, Shoaib Hussein 77, Kazam Ali 4-38)
  Malaga 166 (31.0 overs, Asif Tarar 38, Tahir Mehmood 5-42)
• Cordoba (6) lost to Combined Colleges (19) by 3 wickets.
  Cordoba, 24 April.
  Cordoba 194 (33.0 overs, Shoaib Hussein 80, Brian Barrett 3-32)
  Combined Colleges 195-7 (28.0 overs, Azard Thajudin 56, Ashan Alwis 49)
• Combined Colleges (18) beat Malaga (6) by 90 runs.
  Malaga, 4 April.
  Combined Colleges 210 (33.0 overs, P Menon 44)
  Malaga 120 (25.0 overs, A Alwis 4-24)