With three rounds of Saturday evening matches remaining to identify the ICUSA 2010 Winter League Cricket Tournament’s semi-finalists, “Royals” enhanced their chances of being one of the semi-finalists, by defeating “Magicians” and “Sparky Lady” last week-end. “Sparky Lady” defeated the “Magicians” who had a bad night loosing both of their matches.
Royals vs. Magicians
“Royals” batted first and scored 133, after an excellent opening stand of 56 between Mahadeo Prashad and Sean Thompson. The other batters built on that start with Derek Mc Donald blasting 30 runs of the last pair partnership of 42 with Blair. The “Magicians” were only able to get one dismissal as the bowlers were unable to contain the batsmen. In reply the “Magicians” were dismissed for a paltry 54 as the batsmen found the “Royals” bowling almost unplayable. There were 5 dismissals that reduced the score by 25 runs. That was a luxury which the “Magicians” could not afford. For the “Royals” Sean T. had the remarkable figures of 2 overs 3wickets for minus 9 runs while McDonald conceded only 3 runs in his 2 overs spell. Overall, the “Royals” achieved a clinical win with all their players combining to create a spectacle of an impregnable cricket team.
Sparky Lady vs. Magicians
The “New York Magicians” suffered their second defeat of the evening when ‘Sparky Lady” comfortably won the game. ‘Magicians” batted first scoring an inadequate 93 runs. The bowlers kept a tight leach on the batsmen who were never able to get the momentum needed to get the score moving at an acceptable rate.
In reply “Sparky Lady” amassed 119 with all of their batsmen appropriately applying themselves. The feature of the innings was that there was no dismissals as the batsmen approached the target sensibly. “Magicians” seemed demoralized loosing 2 matches. “Sparky Lady’s win gave them a moral boost as they entered the next match against the strong “Royals”.
Royals vs. Sparky Lady
In this encounter “Royals” defeated “Sparky Lady” with ease. “Sparky Lady” took first strike, and scored an inadequate 100 runs which was not a challenging score for the “Royals” batting machine. “Royals” bowled very accurately and they made scoring difficult throughout the innings. In reply “Royals” scored an imposing 139. In the process they did not loose a single wicket and their batting effort was punctuated by pleasing professionalism. McDonald ended the inning with a flourish, as he smashed 42 runs from the last 3 overs of the innings. The “Sparky Lady” bowlers tried their best but they were unable to stem the constant flow of runs. The fielding left a lot of room for improvements. The portly gentlemen of the “Sparky Lady” team opted, in vain, to use their feet, in lieu of their hands to intercept the flat drives from the bats of McDonald and Prashad as bending to stop the ball seemed too tedious a task for the fun loving guys who were representing the “Lady”.
