Patong cruise to easy win – Phuket Cricket

PHUKET: On an overcast Sunday for Round 6 of the Outrigger T20 league, Laguna last weekend squared up against Patong in the morning session, while the Village took on ICC in a rain-affected afternoon session.

In the morning match, Patong cruised to a comfortable win over Laguna who could only manage 90 runs during their innings with Patong reaching their target of 91 in the 14th over securing their second win of the season.

The afternoon encounter between the Village and ICC was a closely fought rain-affected affair which had to be reduced to 15 overs due to heavy rain and failing light. The Village ran out winners on the average run rate target of 114, despite a valiant effort by ICC who reached 106 in reply.

After winning the toss, Laguna chose to bat and set a target, but lost openers Damian Clowes and Darren Shaw in the first and second overs, respectively. Manish Sadarangani (15) and Sami Ullah (36 not out) were the only batsmen in the Laguna line-up to reach double figures in a dismal batting performance which saw them reach only 90-8 from 18.4 overs.

Laguna has now lost three consecutive matches and will need a major turn around in form and a good slice of luck if they are to successfully defend their title.

With such a small target, the Patong batsmen went about their chase in a cautious manner. They accomplished this with a solid opening stand of 50 runs between Mike Khan (15) and Seemant Raju (42), followed up with a 36 run partnership between Raju and Imtiyaz Mushtaq (22 not out) to comfortably reach their target of 91-2 in the 14th over.

In the afternoon, heavy clouds came in from the west coast and the match between the Village and ICC got underway with light showers. However, this did not phase Village openers Paul Stamp (27) and Divan Mydeen (24) who placed the ball well to pick up easy runs, as well as punishing loose bowling, dispatching balls to the boundary.

Stamp, eventually fell in the 8th over with the score on 60 and Mydeen following him in the next over after an extra 12 rund added to the total. Simon Wetherell (14) helped push the things along to 100 before he fell, followed in quick succession by Martin Foster just 2 balls later.

Rain then interrupted play for about 30 minutes.

Mark Ashman (19) and Mark Whetton (34 not out) returned to a wet crease, but remained unphased by the trying conditions, putting on a valuable 44 run partnership to take the Village total to 152-6 from their 20 overs.

Rain once again interrupted play delaying ICC’s innings and as a consequence the match was shortened to 15 overs. A run rate of 7.6 runs per over was required by ICC and knowing this, they put big hitter Ali Khan (23) to open the innings with Shah Hidatullah (11).

A fired up Craig Patterson achieved the breakthrough in the 4th over bowling Shah and followed this up in his next over removing Khan with the score on 42.

ICC were matching the run rate amidst heavy rain.

Arif Mushtaq (13) and Balesh Desai (8) pushed the score along to 70 in the 10th over before both fell victim to the bowling of Olly Wingate. Ravi Naik (13) and Paneent Thakur (15) then combined to take the score to 98 runs in the 14th over.

Surender Kumar (4 not out) and Iqbal Malik (6 not out) were then left with the challenging task of hitting 16 from the final over, but could only manage eight runs to leave ICC stranded on 106-6 in a closely contested match.

The league table sees the Village consolidate their lead at the top remaining undefeated with 10 points while Laguna, ICC and Patong battle it out on 4 points each.