Taiwan Southerners Cricket Club (TSCC) repeated Saturday’s performance at the Peace Cup in Chiayi City when they crossed blades with Formosa Cricket Club (FCC) once again yesterday and proved far too strong. Their victory was founded upon the patient batting of Jeff Black (67 not out) and useful contributions from captain Duane Christie (28), Graham Terblanche (26) and Andrew Carrick (23).
FCC captain Salim Samade opened the bowling in unintentionally generously, conceding 16 runs, but newball partner Ric McGrail tidied things up by bowling Christie. Salim made amends for his wayward start by bowling Terblanche.
Dhananjay Magar and Ashish Tripathi bowled tidily enough, but the chance to restrict the target slipped through the hands of the FCC fielders with a tough caught and bowled chance going down, while Black was caught on the boundary only for the fielder to run into the fence.
Black then made FCC pay with some mighty blows over mid-on.
A target of 173 placed a lot of pressure on the FCC top order and it showed. Timmy Chang was caught behind after a brilliant dive by wicketkeeper Shane Daly, before Paul Turner (23) was able to hold up his end and Heinrich Nothnagel (20) showed some intent by hitting the first-change bowlers.
If Nothnagel’s dismissal was seen as the end of the match by some, Magar had other ideas. With Tripathi offering able support, he launched into the offspin of Hercules Malan for a giant, straight six and compiled 52 not out. However, it wasn’t enough and TSCC won by 15 runs.
FCC beat the Scunners in the semi-final earlier on. The Taichung side made 88 before Timmy Chang (26) led the reply as FCC chased down the target in only nine overs.
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