Rizwan Mahmood (Photo: ECN/DCF)
Skanderborg captain Rizwan Mahmood was in dominant mood in Denmark’s Elite Division on Saturday, hitting a magnificent 150 to propel his side to 417 for seven against Herning.
Coming in at 52 for three after three wickets had fallen in as many overs, Rizwan first shared a fourth-wicket stand of 136 in 16 overs with Shangeev Thanikaithasan (56), and then another of 126 for the sixth wicket with Anders Bülow.
His innings was remarkably evenly paced, his first fifty coming from just 33 deliveries, his second from 35, and his third from 26. In all, he hit 14 fours and seven sixes.
After he had departed, Bülow continued in combination with Oliver Hald to pile on another 92 runs in seven overs against a demoralised Herning attack; Hald smashed 58 from 29 deliveries, while his partner finished on 73 not out from a comparatively steady 64 balls.
Unsurprisingly, Herning subsided fairly quietly in reply and were dismissed for 115, Christian Peck removing the core of the middle order for figures of three for 23.
At Svanholm Park, meanwhile, a sixth-wicket stand of 115 between Delawar Khan (78) and Absar Khan (52) enabled Ishøj to recover from a parlous 45 for five and reach 186 before they were dismissed by the home side, for whom Mads Henriksen, Toqeer Ahmad and Jonas Henriksen each claimed three wickets.
Jonas Henriksen then anchored the Svanholm response with 78, and his partnership of 88 for the fourth wicket with keeper Abdul Hashmi laid the foundation for their side’s four-wicket victory.
The results leave Skanderborg on top of the table, two points ahead of Svanholm, who lead KB on net run rate.
There were plenty of runs in Jersey over the weekend, with Old Victorians maintaining their unbeaten record on Sunday by chasing down the Under-19s’ 294 for six at FB Fields and winning by six wickets.
Patrick Gouge (50) and Will Perchard (64) got the youngsters’ innings off to a great start with an opening stand of 81, but the highlight of the innings was Asa Tribe’s 94, made from 65 deliveries with two fours and no fewer than eight sixes.
Not to be outdone, the Old Boys’ skipper Luke Gallichan responded with an unbeaten, 86-ball 98, and his stand of 132 for the fourth wicket with Jonty Jenner (61) propelled their side to within sight of victory.
It was a similar, though not quite so high-scoring a story at Les Quennevais on Saturday, where a second-wicket stand of 92 between Ollie Nightingale (85) and Dominic Blampied (48) laid the foundation of St Ouen Springfield’s six-wicket win over the Walkovers.
Corey Bodenstein’s 56 was the top score in the Walkovers’ 230 for seven, but thanks to Nightingale and Blampied – and a rapid 34 not out from Tony Kay – St Ouen passed this total with 20 deliveries to spare.
There were some high scores, too, in the Italian championship, where Cricket Stars posted 360 for seven against Brescia in Modena, Manpreet Singh contributing 170 of them, and then dismissed their opponents for 304.
Their feat was surpassed by Jinnah Brescia, however, who ran up 413 against Lonigo in Venice and bowled the opposition out for 175.
In other matches Bergamo beat Bogliasco by two wickets, Cividate had a 32-run victory over Bergamo United, Padova beat Royal Padova by 18 runs in a hard-fought local derby, and Asian Latina had a 60-run DLS win over Napoli in a rain-affected match in Aprilia.
The most significant, and certainly the most exciting, match in the Oslo T20 league was the Group A encounter between Friends and Bjørvika, which Friends won by a single run after being dismissed for 106.
In a thrilling finish Bjørvika collapsed to 97 for nine, and although the final pair were able to add eight runs in the remaining seven deliveries, they were unable to manage more; Mansoor Ahmed was the Friends’ hero with three for 10 from his four overs.
In Group C MASK A maintained their unbeaten record with a 53-run victory over Sinsen B, Avinash Mishra making a 41-ball 82 not out and Ateequr Rehman taking three for 4 in two overs, while in Group D MASK B, Nittedal and Fjord C stayed level on two wins out of two with victories over Kringslå, Mortensrud and Haugenstua A respectively, in the last case the winning runs coming from the final delivery of Fjord’s innings.
Group B leaders Klemetsrud had an easy win over Falken A, their total of 205 for eight built on a econd-wicket stand of 92 from 45 deliveries between Pratheesh Thangavadivel (68) and Fahim Ghayas (44).
Unbeaten leaders Crosby could thank a superb innings of 145 not out by Carl Hartmann, made from 92 deliveries with 22 fours and three sixes, for their seven-wicket defeat of Valkyres at Mullen-E-Cloie, as they chased down their opponents’ 228 for nine with ten overs to spare.
In other matches, Peel kept up the pressure on Crosby with a five-wicket win over Cronkbourne at Tromode, Greg Miller taking four for 47 and Eddie Beard hitting a 54-ball 85, while Dollin Jansen’s 57 not out was instrumental in Castletown’s six-wicket victory over Ramsey after Daniel Williams had taken four for 39 and Garreth Roome three for 40 to dismiss the home side for 187.
Costa Vikings stayed well clear in the Southern League with two comfortable wins over Granada at the Cártama Oval.
Batting first in the first match the Vikings ran up 204 for eight, Maanav Nayak making 64 and Marc Gouws 69, and then restricted Granada to 128 for six.
A fine double by Louis Bruce ensured that the second game was even more one-sided: he took three for 13 in his four overs as Granada battled their way to 88 for six, and then hit 36 not out from 24 deliveries to steer the Vikings to a nine-wicket victory.
Razmal Shigiwais was again in great form with the bat for Vienna Afghan, who beat Sub-Continental and Afghan Steiermark in a double-header at Ballpark Graz on Sunday; he made 45 out of his side’s 181 for nine in the first game, won by 27 runs, and an unbeaten 60 out of 165 for seven in the second, before Zabiullah Ibrahimkhei and Ishak Safi combined to bowl the Steiermarkers out for 117.
Austrian Cricket Tigers stayed top, however, with an eight-wicket win over Cricketer CC, skipper Muhammad Shahbaz making 63 and Aqib Iqbal 65 not out.
Unluckiest side in the whole of Europe at the weekend were Vienna CC, who skittled United Nations for 32 in 13.2 overs, Daniel Eckstein taking five for 14, only to see the rain arrive and the match abandoned.
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