By Saif Yasin
In their first official match as teammates the Big Apple Cricket Club boys showed that they meant business by defeating Enmore Cricket Club by 88 runs. The day started out with Big Apple Cricket Club winning the toss and skipper Zaheer Saffie electing to bat on what seemed to be a two pace Bay Park pitch. Mark “Chucky” Gomes and Mark Gomes were sent out to open the batting for Big Apple, but Enmore quickly responded.
Clain Williams of Big Apple Cricket Club stroke and unbeaten 102. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
With the score on 8 Mark Gomes fell victim to R. Bhola trapped LBW for 1, this sent skipper Zaheer Saffie to the crease. Gomes and Saffie were able to build a decent partnership before Saffie was caught off the bowling of Bhola for 13. With two wickets down the hard hitting Clain Williams walked to the crease. At first Williams looked a little unsettled as the Enmore pacers belted delivery after delivery at him, but as the innings progressed on Williams gained his composure. In the mean while Gomes stroked the ball to all parts of the ground, he would eventually fall for a well played 25 being bowled off the bowling of J. Yasin.
The next batsmen in, Antonio Chan, would fall cheaply for 7 off the bowling of former USA U-15 player Trevis Ross. In would walk Kumar Nandalall who along with the now settled Williams would punish the remaining Enmore bowlers with boundary after boundary. The two accounted for 143 of the clubs eventual 219 runs. Williams would end with a magnificent 102 not out and Nandalall would end his day with an unbeaten blistering 41.
Inning Summary: B.A.C.C. 219 for 7 ( C. Williams 102 n.o./ K. Nandalall 41n.o./ Mark C. Gomes 25)
Enmore: R Bhola 7-0-15-2/ T. Ross 7-0-42-1/ J. Yasin 7-0-45-1 (30 extras in total)
In reply to Big Apple’s decent total of 219, Enmore sent out skipper Safraz Ali and Marlon Kallicharan. Opening the bowling for Big Apple was C. Senior, who immediately fell under pressure. The first over alone conceded 16 runs and the Big Apple players knew they weren’t going to win if this continued. From the other ender Theron Blair bowled a more economical spell, but after two and three over respectively the two pacers saw their day end early.
This could have been a result of Kallicharan and Ali punishing any ball of any length to the boundary. With the game falling out of control Zaheer Saffie decided to put himself as well Kumar Nandalall into the attack. Big Apple finally got a break through with score on 72 when a mix up by the two Enmore batsmen lead to Kallicharan being run out for a well played 42. This one wicket would trigger the collapse of the Enmore batting line up.
The Big Apple spinners had their way with the remaining batsmen as no other batsmen made it into double digits. All the while Safraz Ali held his end before being run out as well for a well composed 47. The game would end when youngster Narindra Balram claimed two wickets in his only over bowled followed by Mark Gomes picking up the final wicket of J. Yasin.
Inning Summary: Enmore all out for 131 (S. Ali 47/ M. Kallicharan 42/ T. Ross 9)
B.A.C.C: M. Gomes 5-0-15-3/ Z. Saffie 7-0-17-3/ N. Balram 1-0-3-2
Saif Yasin is a 16 year-old student at Scholars Academy and a member of Big Apple Cricket Club.
