Sept 30, 2014 – Hamilton and District Cricket League’s Premiere Division Championship Game was held on Sunday Sept 28th between NCC and Oakville at the home ground of NCC located at Niagara Cricket Center.Niagara Cricket Club captured the Premiere league title and won the final game over Oakville Premier by 5 wickets.Niagara Cricket Club Premier team won the toss and considering the bowling strength in the team put Oakville Premiere on crease to bat first. Niagara’s captain Aqeel Raja used his 2 key attack bowlers , Tawab Ikram and Javed Qureshi to restrain and defuse the Oakville CC entire batting line up for a very low total score of just 115 runs on board.
Tawab Ikram, the attack bowler of NCC opened the very first over with fierce pace and took the opening batsman wicket (Saad Zafar) in his very first delivery of the match. The loss of a key opening batsman wicket at the very start of the match, a real shocker, put Oakville CC on the back foot. Both Javed Qureshi (3) and Tawab (3) captured the early 6 wickets and cleaned up the top order of bating at 60 for 5. Zeshan Arshad (3 wickets) and Mehmood Ahmed (2 Wickets) brought the Oakville CC middle and tail order to a halt and Oakville went all out for modest total of only 115 runs on board.
Chasing a low score of 115 runs, Niagara CC opened batting with Zia Sarwar and Mohammed Koya. NCC lost Koya’s wicket early when he got caught on the covers. However Saqib Rehan joining Zia Sarwar formed a key 68 runs partnership. This stand by the 2 left hand batsmen made the difference in this low scoring run chase. Zia scored 42 and Saqib scored 41 set Niagara CC on its smooth course to victory. Niagara ended up chasing the modest total in 29.4 overs.
This is the first time in recent history that Niagara CC has won both the Seasonal Premier League Trophy i.e. capturing highest points in the season and also the Final Premier Championship Trophy at their home ground.
Score Card is posted by H&D at http://www.hamiltoncricket.ca/matchCenter.php?id=355304
