City Kaitak make short work of Kowloon Cantons to join on top of Blitz points table

Defending champs in danger of missing final for first time

A great all-round effort from City Kaitak’s Sohail Tanvir consigned the Cantons to their second loss of the tournament from their three matches.

Kowloon never really got out of first gear in their inning after skipper Babar Hayat lost the toss and was sent into bat by Rayad Emrit. Dwayne Smith’s miserable tournament continued after yesterday Royal duck – an LBW which repays suggested pitched comfortable outside leg stump – going for another globe in the first over. Tanvir had the ball on a string early on and got one to go slightly across Smith who was looking to play the ball into the leg side. The resulting catch off the leading edge into the covers was taken by Ravi Bopara who was the pick of the CKT fielders.

Playing straight after a match that had seen over 450 runs scored on it many at the ground were concerned somebody had been in the middle and replaced the morning’s wicket after a ball spat back at Samit Patel like cobra striking him on his bowling arm after a seemingly innocuous delivery, extremely short outside the off stump, jagged back and struck the English all-rounder.

Babar Hayat’s 48 was the only bright light as Kowloon limped to 127 for 7. Buckley and Hayat put on 54 before Ryan fell in the thirteenth over with the score on 71. Hayat ran himself out not long after and despite a quick fire 24 from Ashar Zaidi only 30 came from the final five overs. Tanvir finished with impressive figures of 2/17 the remaining wickets were shared between four other bowlers.

The ball was nipping around for Cantons’ quicks Wahab, Ehsan & van Meekeren early in Kaitak’s innings. Despite Coetzer and Rath falling cheaply which preceding a mini collapse seeing CKT at 46/4 when Atkinson was run out, Bopara and Tanvir steadied the ship to see City home with 23 balls remaining.

The pair put on 84 in 8.2 overs to finish the match. Bopara was 33* (24) and Tanvir a hard hitting 46 not out from his 29 deliveries including four sixes.

With three regular matches remaining here’s the table: