Cricket: 'Untouchable' Winterthur succumb to Olten

Swiss cricket may be in full swing but so is the holiday season and Winterthur paid the price at the weekend. Hitherto unbeaten in the Swiss Cricket League in 2010, Winterthur crashed to their first defeat this year against Olten, falling well short of their target of 118 – a modest total even taking the challenging coconut matting into account.

Batting first, Olten’s Sharaz Sufiyan’s 47 gave structure to the innings despite a mid-order collapse which netted Winterthur and Swiss vice-captain Sanjay Theaver four wickets for six runs, Rahul Khandelwal three for 12 and Pip Kirkpatrick two for 23.

In reply, Olten’s West Indian strike bowler Shane Charles (2-26) unsettled the Winterthur top order, but first change seamer Murali did most damage (7-4-3-13), just failing to grab a well-deserved five-for.

The scorecard shows Winterthur’s chances worsening considerably between the 14th and 21st overs, when the team went from three to six wickets down, adding just four runs to their total. Their last wicket fell in the 27th over with 76 on the board.

After the 42-run win, Olten skipper Sheeraz Sufiyan hinted that his team expected a much closer finish, since his intention had been to go for 175. But he said: "We had quite a low total but we know we have a very good bowling side, so we can get 100 runs and defend it. Mostly it works, sometimes it doesn’t."

Winterthur’s Matt Allen said his side had twice visited Olten with weak teams – the first was in the Pickwick Cup – "and been made to pay the penalty".

While insisting that his teammates were not despondent since Winterthur remain top of the group, Allen added: "We had plenty of bowlers, but only three recognised front-line league batsmen. Olten's innings was built around one player staying in and scoring 47. We needed one of our three batsmen to do the same, but it was not to be."

In the second SCA League East game of the weekend, Nomads exacted their revenge on Power Winterthur after last week’s disappointment in the Pickwick Cup – just as the game looked to be going away from them.

In a repeat of last Sunday’s fixture, Power lost the toss and Nomads captain Wicki again had no hesitation in batting first on a breezy and sunny day.

Nomads made some changes to their top order in an effort to boost the early run rate and take some pressure off the rest of the team, their left-hand, right-hand opening combination making a difference on the Winterthur wicket as they raced to 51 after 10 overs.

Power struck back in the 13th over when Shani removed the leg stump to claim the first wicket, and then in the next over Paul, on 55, was given out bowled after his leg stump bails dropped to the ground without anyone noticing until after the delivery arrived in the keeper’s hands.

That confusing episode aside, Power’s own bowling combination – and particularly Mubarak, Tariq and Shani – proved too strong for Nomads, with four batsmen bowled and another caught and bowled in fewer than 10 more overs.

Shani once again just failed to complete a hat-trick for the second consecutive week as Nomads’ tail order reached 109 all out from 33 overs.

Despite their uninspiring total Nomads got off to a flyer, with Darshil (four wickets) dismissing Ashfaq with a diamond duck to a catch at mid-off, before Ashwin bowled last week’s top-scorer Basharat in the next over, leaving Power reeling on 5 for 2. There was plenty of movement for Wiki and spin for Srikat (two wickets), who was brought on earlier than usual, perhaps because of the lower total.

At 60 for eight victory looked to be within Nomads’ grasp, but Power came back with a not entirely chanceless eighth wicket partnership that took them achingly close to their target.

Fortunately for Nomads, Ashwin had four overs left to bowl and he dismissed Shanawas caught behind – but only after a deep intake of breath when he sprayed his first ball wide with just 12 runs to play with.

Two balls later the game ended with Power on 97, when their last batsman’s cut to point forced Paul to demonstrate his juggling skills before taking the catch safely.

Nomads Sangam said he considered his team "lucky" to have won the encounter and promised to "sort out" the batting in next week’s friendly fixture.

He added: "We didn’t play to our potential but somehow we managed to win. At tea we said we’ll fight them all the way and take our catches. The odd ball was keeping low and we knew that Power are strong on the leg side but not on the off side, so that was our bowling strategy."

In the last SCA league fixture of the weekend, Berne’s loose bowling forced them to work harder than they really needed to for an away win over Cossonay.

After an initially strong opening spell from pacemen Naveed Khan and Umar Sheikh (three for 32), Berne’s second-string seamers lacked direction and allowed Cossonay to amass 162 all out, with Mat Boden top-scoring on 74.

The total might have been higher had Berne not held on to their catches. Even so, Abraham Koshy, who took two catches, insisted that Cossonay’s batsmen were largely to blame for their own downfall.

He said: "Only one of their batsmen came off, he was the only one who kept his head together, the rest got out to stupid errors when they went for really wide ones."

In reply, Berne reached their target with five wickets to spare in the 27th over, but Koshy denied the result was straightforward. "It didn’t look like it was going to be easy," he said. "We lost three or four quick wickets; we were lucky."

During Cern’s friendly encounter against Geneva XI Stars, the physicists passed the 200-mark batting first, with opener Imtiaz Ahmed top-scoring on 74 before being caught brilliantly by Saquib at the long on boundary as he tried to hit a six off Shahabullah in the 25th over.

The Stars’ 6ft 6in paceman Sambit was the pick of the bowlers, his 8 overs costing him 26 runs and earning him 4 wickets. Skipper Ashwin said: "He was unlucky not to have more as he missed the edge of the bat at least 12 times."

In reply, Stars’ opener Ovais stroked four consecutive boundaries in the second over and fell to an Anand outswinger just short of his half-century.

Debutant Parth Patel was involved in a century partnership with Homayun Sherzai before both of them were caught at the long on boundary. Shahabullah finished the game with a quick fire 24 off six balls to lead Stars to a five wicket victory.

Elsewhere, the Swiss U17s are playing in the ICC European Under 17 Championships (2nd Division). Follow their progress.

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