I scouted around the recent results on cricinfo to search for some noteworthy performances in domestic cricket for you to ponder on.
Pakistan’s domestic scene has come up with a couple of big scores in the past ten days. Fawad Alam of the National Bank of Pakistan has made the highest score I’ve seen for a while with an unbeaten 296 against Pakistan Customs (sporting Northants own Bilal Shafayat in their number as captain and keeper). This rout by an innings and 310 was about as dismissive as you could get. A chap called Irafnuddin could not guide Alam over the 300 line… The runs were made of 294 balls, which is Sehwag-esque. Mohammed Tahla also took 10 wickets for the Bank in this game.
Another 10 wicket match came for the gloriously named Abbottabad against Costelloisgood (sorry Karachi Blues) via Rashid Mansoor. Given top class internationals are going to be IPL bound, I wonder if any of these players could interest English eyes for the county teams?
Faisal Iqbal, a test player I saw at The Oval a few years back was another double centurion, making an unbeaten 200 for Pakistan International Airlines.
In this game the winners almost made a horlicks of chasing 92 to win. I have done some work on Pakistani banks, and I’ve never heard of this mob.
The star has to be Yasir Arafat, the famously named county stalwart, who returned remarkable figures for Khan Research Laboratories. 9 for 35. He had highly regarded one day bowler Sohail Tanvir at the other end as well.
Younis Khan made 99 and Mohammed Naved took 7/129 in the recently concluded game between Lahore Shalimar and Habib Bank (heard of them).
In the West Indies there was a big double ton for test cast off Ryan Hinds, who made 240 for Barbados against the Leeward Islands in St Maarten. Another test cast off, Runako Morton, made a ton for the hosts in that game and useless Surrey bowler Pedro Collins took 5 in the first for Barbados in their innings win. Nikita Miller took 8/41 for Jamaica against the Combined Campuses, whoever they may be and however strong they may be, at Bridgetown, in a low scoring game. Darren Bravo, elevated to the A team to play England, notched a century for Trinidad in their match against the Windward Islands.
In Australia, where Symonds got himself into trouble for questioning the motives behind New South Wales’s hiring of Brendon McCullum for the 20/20 competition, the Big Bash came to an end. And NSW beat Victoria in the final at Stadium Australia. Victoria made 166/4 with Rob Quiney making 91, but NSW got them off the last ball with Ben Rohrer top scoring with 44. More on that here….
