NORTHERN SPAIN BEAT SOUTHERN SPAIN IN THE BATTLE OF THE REGIONS
A friendly match between a Northern Junior XI and the Southern Spanish Development XI was played last weekend to highlight the wealth of junior talent within Spanish cricket .
The cricket promotional match, organized by Cricket Spain in collaboration with the Catalan Cricket Association, was held at the sports facilities of Sporting Alfas Cricket Club located in L’Alfas del Pi, near Benidorm.
The Northern side was made up exclusively from members from the Catalan Cricket Association who ply their trade in either Girona or Barcelona whilst the Southern team had representatives from four clubs, La Manga, Lanzarote, San Fulgencio and the hosts Sporting Alfas.
Alfas,despite its convenient location, which allows for the influx of sports tourism for much of the year, fell foul to the weather on this day and was overcast with regular showers as the game started and ended with rain falling.
The debut of the Catalans in this regional competition could not have been more fruitful as the northern cricketers of Spain claimed victory by beating their Southern counterparts by 14 runs. The visitors chose batting first after winning the toss, and set a nice total of 184 on the board in 35 overs. Rizwan and Aqeel gave the northern side a very good opening start, and then Bilawal and Vinod took over to take the innings forward to its final total.
In response the South of Spain´s innings got off to a very good start, Christian Munoz and Joel Brook putting on 49 and looking comfortable in the process. However the partnership was broken, and the first wicket lost was Munoz, and then Brook was sent back to pavilion with no addition to the score.
All the batsmen tried and the South were in the match until the last over thanks to Ravi Panchal who was brilliant, and he single handedly took his teams innings to the last over with a fine 72 not out, but finally all the Southern Spanish batsmen were all out on 170, and the Catalan selection won the match by the smallest of margins.
A great event organized by Cricket Spain, and a great opportunity for all participants to prove their cricketing qualities. The future of cricket is very bright and the juniors throughout the country are proving that. Thanks to all voluntaries for their hard work and for the teams from the North and South of Spain for making this event possible.
| DEVELOPMENT MATCH | 2012 | |||||
| MATCH (Home Team) | SOUTHERN SELECT | VERSUS (away team) | NORTHERN XI | |||
| Date November 3rd 2012 | Venue | Alfas | ||||
| Toss won by North who batted | Umpires | John Howden & Dave Moore | ||||
| Innings of Cataluyna (North) | Scorer | Dave Myers | ||||
| Name of Batsman | How out | Bowler | Total Score | |||
| (give initial first) | ||||||
| 1 Abdul Muhaddin | ct Munoz | Gooding | 34 | |||
| 2 Rizwan Mirza | ct Munoz | T Brown | 58 | |||
| 3 S Khan | ct ? | Munoz | 9 | |||
| 4 Vinod | Bowled | Munoz | 19 | |||
| 5 Aizaz Khan | Bowled | T Brown | 18 | |||
| 6 O Shah | not out | 2 | ||||
| 7 Abishek | ct Roper | Munoz | 4 | |||
| 8 Sandeep | ct Akash | Roper | 0 | |||
| 9 Inam Khan | not out | 6 | ||||
| 10 A N Other | ||||||
| 11 A N Other | ||||||
| EXTRAS Byes 14 Leg Byes 8 Wides 12 | Penalty Runs | 184 | ||||
| TOTAL SCORE (for wickets) | 184/7 | |||||
| BOWLING ANALYSIS | ||||||
| Fall of Wickets | Name of Bowler | OVERS | MAIDENS | RUNS | WICKETS | |
| 1 R Panchal | 2 | 0 | 17 | 0 | ||
| 2 | 2 J Roper | 6 | 0 | 19 | 1 | |
| 3 | 3 S Gooding | 7 | 2 | 19 | 1 | |
| 4 | 4 Akash | 7 | 0 | 33 | 0 | |
| 5 | 5 T Brown | 7 | 0 | 37 | 2 | |
| 6 | 6 C Munoz | 6 | 0 | 37 | 3 | |
| 7 | ||||||
| 8 | ||||||
| 9 | ||||||
| 10 | ||||||
| RESULT | Penalty Run | |||||
| Northern XI won by 14 runs | ||||||
| DEVELOPMENT MATCH | 2012 | |||||
| SOUTHERN SPAIN SELECT | VERSUS (away team) | CATALUYNA (N0RTH) | ||||
| Date November 3rd 2012 | Venue | ALFAS | ||||
| Toss won by North who batted | Umpires | John Howden & Dave Moore | ||||
| INNINGS OF SOUTHERN SPAIN SELECT | Scorer | Dave Myers | ||||
| Name of Batsman | How out | Bowler | Total Score | |||
| (give initial first) | ||||||
| J Brook | Bowled | Vinod | 24 | |||
| 2 C Munoz | ct Vinod | Aizaz | 24 | |||
| 3 J Roper | ct ? | Cheema | 10 | |||
| R Panchal | not out | 72 | ||||
| 5 T Brown | Bowled | Cheema | 4 | |||
| 6 A Panchal | ct W/Keeper | Sandeep | 6 | |||
| 7 S Gooding | Bowled | Sandeep | 7 | |||
| 8 W Ashraf | ct ? | Aizaz | 1 | |||
| 9 A Brown | ct ? | Vinod | 0 | |||
| 10 K Wood | ct ? | Faisal | 1 | |||
| 11 K Perman | run out | 2 | ||||
| Extras Byes 6 Leg Byes 6 Wides 6 N B 1 | Penalty Runs | 170 | ||||
| TOTAL SCORE (for wickets) | 170/10 | |||||
| BOWLING ANALYSIS | ||||||
| Fall of Wickets | Name of Bowler | OVERS | MAIDENS | RUNS | WICKETS | |
| 1 | 1 Faizal | 5 | 0 | 22 | 1 | |
| 2 | 2 Aizaz | 7 | 0 | 28 | 2 | |
| 3 | 3 Vinod | 7 | 0 | 35 | 2 | |
| 4 | 4 Sachin | 3 | 0 | 22 | 0 | |
| 5 | 5 Abishek | 5 | 0 | 16 | 0 | |
| 6 | 6 Cheema | 3 | 0 | 16 | 2 | |
| 7 | 7 Sandeep | 4 | 0 | 19 | 2 | |
| 8 | ||||||
| 9 | ||||||
| 10 | ||||||
| RESULT | Penalty Run | |||||
| NORTHERN XI WON BY 14 RUNS | ||||||
RAVI PANCHAL WITH THE MICHAEL GARSIDE AWARD FOR BEST JUNIOR CRICKETER OF 2012