Four ZCCC Players Successfully Tour to Surrey with Swiss Colts

The Swiss Colts XI arrived on Thursday morning of the long May Ascension weekend in London, excited, ready to play good cricket matches on wonderful cricket grounds in Surrey.

Our first match was a twenty-over game against the T20 Academy on a very cold and windy late afternoon-early evening. Skipper Arjun V had planned to bowl first but lost the toss and the team was put into bat. Callum H and Arjun V opened the batting but struggled to score runs and it was not long before Callum H lost his wicket followed by Osama M. The score was 36 for 2 after 7 overs. Arjun V and Simon H rebuilt the inning with Simon H hitting big shots at one end and Arjun V rotating the strike at the other end. Simon H scored a quick 31 runs off just 11 balls, including seven 4s, and had to retire. Moaz B kept up the good run rate and scored 15 runs off 7 balls, including three 4s. After 18 overs Arjun V had scored a sensible 31 runs and had to retire. Aiden A could not resist the bad balls, hitting two 6s and he scored a splendid 16 runs not out off 6 balls, helping to putt a total score of 166 on the board. Osama M and Ashwin V gave the team a good start with the ball, with Osama M returning figures of 1-12 off three overs, and Ashwin V 0-6 including a maiden over off his two overs. Moaz B then came into the attack and was unstoppable, taking 5 wickets off 4 overs and giving away only 6 runs including 2 maiden overs. He was supported by Arjun V (2-0-9), Marishque P (1-0-9), Jack D (1-0-6), Simon H (2-1-6), Neil C (2-0-8), Jai S (1-0-6), and Aiden A finishing the game by taking the last 2 wickets (0.3-2-2). The Swiss Colts bowled the opposition out for 74 runs and won the match by 92 runs with an excellent all-round performance. Moaz B was the Man of the match.

On Friday evening, we played our second T/20 match against East Berkshire and the weather was much better than the previous day. The Colts batted first and got off to an exciting start with Callum H hitting three 4s in a row off the first 3 balls. Callum H lost his wicket scoring a well-deserved 41, with the total score on 66 after 12 overs. Osama M and Arjun V kept up the good work, and Arjun V was the second wicket to fall with a score of 23. Osama M and Simon H accelerated the run rate with Osama M scoring 14 runs off 8 balls, and Simon H scoring 15 runs off 5 balls. Moaz B continued the aggressive batting by scoring 18 off 7 balls, followed by Jai S scoring 10 off 8 balls. The Swiss Colts scored a reasonable and defendable total of 138. In the second innings Ashwin V took a tremendous wicket in the second over putting the team in a good position right after the break. Osama M bowled very well at the other end giving away only 8 runs off two overs. Moaz B then bowled an excellent spell keeping up his consistency (4-2-21) and was well supported by Marishque P (4-0-15). Simon H, pick of the bowlers, got all the key wickets taking four wickets in his four overs for just 22 runs. At the end the opposition needed 21 runs to win from the last over, and although we were all a bit tense Osama M, very calm and confident, bowled a great last over giving away just 10 runs and finished the game for us. The Swiss Colts beat East Berkshire by 9 runs.

The third match was on Saturday morning against Camberley Colts. Although the Captain lost the toss, he still got to bowl first as he was planning to do because the ground was wet from the previous night’s heavy rain. Osama M gave us an excellent start by taking 4 wickets in 4 overs and giving only 16 runs away in a spell that also included a maiden over. Everyone bowled well, with Jack D (3-1-15), Marishque P (1-1-2) and once again an excellent bit of bowling by Moaz B taking 4 wickets in just 1.4 overs. The Swiss Colts restricted the opposing team to a total of 74. As we had to chase a low total, the captain mixed the batting order up to give a chance to the lower order batsmen. We won the match quite comfortably with 5 overs still to spare. The top scorer was Marishque P who scored 17 runs including one 4 and one 6.

On Sunday, we played our fourth and last match against London Warriors and it was a 35 over match. The skipper won the toss and chose to bat first. Unfortunately, Callum H lost his wicket in the first over. Arjun V and Osama M steadied the innings with a partnership of 33 runs before Arjun V lost his wicket having scoed 11 runs. Osama M then was out on 29 with a team total of 56. Disappointingly, the next 8 batsmen were only able to score 28 runs. We were bowled out for a total score of 84. Our only chance to win the game was by getting them all out. Unfortunately, the opening bowlers didn’t get any wickets despite their good bowling. Moaz B then came into the attack and got the first breakthrough in the ninth over when the batting team was on 22 runs. The next two batsmen brought their team to a total of fifty runs and we thought that the game was over for us. But Arjun V came into bowl and bowled a magical spell taking 3 wickets in 3 overs, one to a great catch taken by Neil C at square leg with only a fraction of second to react. We then started to raise our hopes, heads went up and energy levels rose. Marishque P and Simon H then also got one wicket each. London Warriors, however, crept closer and finally they needed just one run off the last over, which was too much to ask. This was a very exciting match even though we lost the game. The Swiss Colts bowled extremely well and only conceded 22 runs in the last 15 overs. Osama M was the Man of the match from our team.

This was a very good tour for the Swiss Colts to start their season, winning three and narrowly losing one of their matches, and excellent team work and dedication were seen throughout the tour and the whole team returned with high morale and in good spirits.

The team: Arjun Vinod (GRYCC), Ashwin Vinod (GRYCC), Jack Dooley (GRYCC), Marishque Puvimanasinghe (GRYCC), Neil Creba-Wright (Basel Dragonss CC), Jai Sinh (Cossonay CC), Aiden Andrews (Gingins CC), Osama Mahmood (ZCCC), Moaz Butt (ZCCC), Callum Hirst (ZCCC), Simon Henderson (ZCCC).