Staten Island Cricket Club riding on a scintillating century by Majid Arab defeated Pioneers Cricket Club by a huge margin of 122 runs in the fourth round of Metropolitan Cricket League at the Walker Park.
Majid Arab pose for the camera and hitting a ton.
Pioneers skipper D. Forbes won the toss and sent SICC in to bat on what looked like a beautiful batting pitch on a hot sunny June day. Staten Island opened with Brandon Rampresad and Prashanth Nandavanam and lost the later in the eighth over after a brisk start of 44. Majid Arab joined in Brandon and both started to build the innings rotating the strike on regular bases while capitalizing in full on the bad balls and made sure SICC does not lose any more wickets.
By the water break at the end of the 15th over the score was 98 for one. After the break both batsmen decided to push up the run rate, in doing so Brandon lost his middle stump trying for a big heave but not until he made a very responsible 23 in a valuable second wicket partnership of 63 runs. The foundation was laid for the big hitters to come and make a big total, but instead SICC lost a cluster of wickets. At the other end, Majid kept his cool and kept the scoreboard moving. He was very severe on R. Tully whom he hit for three consecutive sixes to bring up his maiden century of the league.
It was a display of good controlled aggressive batting. He was eventually out for 104 in the 29th over that included 11 fours and 6 sixes. Some lusty blows at the end by Keerthi Bala helped SICC put up a good 228 for the loss of eight wickets in the allotted 30 overs.
For Pioneers C. Sirkisson of the bowlers with the figures of 4 for 33 off 6 overs while rest were on the receiving end of SICC batting.
Chasing 229 Pioneers lost their track and were never in contention due to some hostile aggressive SICC bowling spearheaded by Fahad.
Pioneers lost their opener in the very first over to Fahad and never recovered after that and were bundled out for mere 106 in the last over. For them the bright side was the young 15-year-old M. Persaud, who looked a very stylish and complete of the batsman and holds a very bright future for the club.
SICC skipper Shafficool Sackroolar was the best bowler taking 3 wickets for giving away just 10 runs in 6 overs.
Staten Island look a very different team this year and has a capability to beat any side, so this season is going to be an interesting one.
