Rochdale Premier Cricket League round-up

Tayyab receives his man of the match award from M Siddique, league organiser.

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The second round of the Rochdale Premier Cricket League started this week.

RYCC inflicted a second defeat of the competition on Max XI, while Stoney Stars kept their wining run going.

The day started with two minutes' silence to pay respect to M. Shahid’s (captain of Baba XI) father who passed away on Saturday night. All the players, spectators and RPSL organisers offered their condolences to Mr Shahid and his family for the loss of their beloved father.

The first match of the day was between Stoney Stars and Rochdalians in what was a must win game for both of the teams. 

Stoney Stars won the toss and elected to bat. It was not a good start from their openers, losing their first wicket to the very first ball of the match, but good batting displays from the other batsmen, including Wasim, 30 runs (not out), Shakir, 18 runs, Yasir, 15 runs and Saif, 12 runs, got them up to a respectable total.

Rochdalians bowlers could not control the new ball and gave away 32 runs in extras, helping Stoney Stars to a total of 113 runs.

It was not a good response from Rochdalians, losing their first wicket in the first over with 5 runs on the score board. A good partnership between Hamed, 28 runs, and Malike, 16 runs, gave them some hope but none of the other batsmen made any significant contributions.

Rochdalians lost the match by 13 runs. Shakir of Stoney Stars was given the man of the match award for his 18 runs and 2 wickets for 24 runs.

The second match of the day was between All Stars and Lahore Greens. All Stars won the toss and elected to bat. It was an excellent start from All Stars with all of their batsmen scoring runs, including Asif, 32 runs (not out), Abdul, 30 runs (not out), and Imran, 17 runs. All Stars made 118 runs.

It was a good start from Lahore Greens with Amjad scoring 17 runs, Javed 15 runs and Zafar 13 runs. But none of the other batsmen survived against the disciplined bowling attack of All Stars.

Lahore Greens lost the match by 18 runs. Abdul of All Stars was declared man of the match for his 30 runs (not out) and 1 wicket for 26 runs.

The next match was between RYCC and Max XI, a battle between two top teams in the league. RYCC won the toss and elected to bat. It was a good start for RYCC with all their batsman scoring runs, including Qaiser, 21 runs, Shakeel, 16 runs, and Iqbal, 16 runs. But at the same time they lost wickets at regular intervals. RYCC managed to score 100 runs. Max XI gave away 34 runs in extras.

It was a shaky response from Max XI's batsmen with only three men scoring in double figures - Shoaib, 25 runs (not out), Shehzad, 14 runs, and Rashid, 10 runs. None of the others survived long against the very good bowling attack of RYCC. 

RYCC won the match by 20 runs. Qunain Shah of RYCC was declared man of the match for his 2 wickets for 14 runs. With this win RYCC, Max XI and Stoney Stars are equal on points (16 each) at the top of the league.

The final match of the day was played between Unique and Baba XI. Unique won the toss and elected to bat first. It was a good start from their openers with Afride making 30 runs (not out) and Munawar 14 runs. But none of the other batsmen played with responsibility, losing their wickets at regular intervals. Unique made 102 runs in their 8 overs.

It was a good response from Baba XI and all their batsmen contributed with Shakeel making 18 runs, Iftikhar 15 runs, Tayyab 15 runs and Dastaghir 13 runs.

Baba XI won the match with two balls to spare. Tayyab of Baba XI was given the man of the match award for his 15 runs and 1 wicket for 7 runs.