Fellows opening games

Fellows have come off best in both their opening matches and this without their top runscorer Shoaib playing in either game.

In the first game Fellows played the Srilankan CC who reentered the league under captain Mangala this year after an absence of three years. In their day Srilankan CC was the strongest team in the league, winning every competition, leaving the other teams to compete for second place, so Fellows expected a tough opening game.

Mangala opened with Nalin and took off from the outset, laying in to Fellows opening seamers. It was the introduction of Sonu, who was also captain for the day, that brought his onslaught to a end. Sonu took 4 wickets in his four over spell of legspin for 25 runs, which took the Srilankan top and middle order out of the game. A revival between Danuka and Suja brought their team back to a reasonable total of 145 from 19.3 overs.

Fellows were playing with five new players and unsure of their strength. Fahad has been a real find, first as an outstanding keeper and as he showed now a thinking and effective batsman. Opening with Kumar, another new player, he started slowly while Kumar was attacking, making quickfire 39 off 5 overs before snicking a catch to the wicketkeeper. Fahad then opened up, taking over the attack, helped by Ashish Russel (20 no) scoring 67 not out and taking Fellows to a win in the 17^th over.

In their second game Fellows were paying Dekhelia. This time without their new players, Fellows fell back on the steadying influence of their senior players. Batting first scores came from opener Tim (24), Sonu (16) and a crucial middle order partnership between Mike Kyiacou (40no) and Niroshan (22), which brought Fellow’s total up to 149 for 7.

Dekhelia’s opener Rawlinson batted with subtlety and power for his 69no but his team was always behind the scoring rate needed and their innings fell 32 runs short of the Fellows total reaching 127 for 5 off their 20 overs.