- Rishi Daryanani 3rd October 2000

On a hot and humid Thursday afternoon, 22 of the best young cricketer’s from 6 different schools (KGV, SIS, WIS, IS, DBS and DMS) competed in the annual Tim Davies Trophy.  6 players from KGV, 3 players from DMS and 3 players from DBS were up against the tough opponents of, 6 players from SIS, 3 players from IS and 3 players from WIS. Both teams were organised enough, to have a twelfth man. The mainlanders had Anthony Marron from DBS as twelfth man, and for the Islanders, Deepinder Dhillon played the role twelfth man.

From the past, the Kowloon schoolboys XI (now known as the mainlanders) have won this match only once in the 6 years of its running. The players were all ready at the Kowloon Cricket Club at 12:00 PM. Both captains Rohan Boghani and Kieran Kumaria wanted to bat first in this match, as it was extremely hot, and fielding conditions were harsh, as the outfield was very quick. However Rohan Boghani won the toss for the Island Schoolboys XI, who without hesitation decided to bat first.

This was to be a nightmare for the mainland schoolboys XI, as in the next 30 overs, they were to feel the heat as well as watch some real good batting.

Dyutish Chaudhuri and Rohan Boghani opened the batting for the Island XI and they set their targets early, with 2 smashing fours over extra cover as Kieran Kumaria the opening bowler for the Mainland team just watched the ball to the boundary. However Rohan Boghani tried to go too far, in the fourth over, Vinay Parwal bowled a shorter delivery and Rohan picked it out immediately, however he miss hit the ball and only managed to pop the ball for a simple catch to Vinay Sajnani at mid-wicket. Rohan scored 4. However that was the only wicket for the first one hour of play as Graeme Hawinkels arrived at the crease and he together with Dyutish Chaudhuri took the score to 122/1 before Graeme Hawinkels was bowled out by Yogesh Mahtani. Graeme scored a brilliant 52  which was well balanced with impressive defense shots as well as attacking shots, he had a lot of batting to go, and he would be disappointed to be dismissed as he could have easily gone on to hit a century. However by getting Graeme out, was not going to make the mainland task any easier, as Dyutish Chaudhuri was still batting, and was hitting the ball all around the ground with sparkling shots.

Vikram Chavali was next in and was really did not trouble the scorers, as he was dismissed for a duck, cleaned bowled by Chandeep Gill, who was the pick of the bowlers in my view for the mainland team.

Next in for the Island XI team was Shubham, he came in to the crease extremely positively and played some aggressive shots on both sides of the wickets and was then dismissed by Kieran Kumaria who got his first wicket of the day at a crucial moment in the second last over. Dyutish Chaudhuri was still not out and was smashing the ball on both sides of the wickets with fours and sixes coming in no time. Yogesh Mahtani also bowled impressively through out the day, however his first spell was severely punished by Dyutish has he bowled too many shorter deliveries and full tosses. His second spell went for 8 runs (3 overs) and he was impressive. In the second last over. Zubi Nizami entered the crease to score 19 runs in 6 balls as he smashed Vinay Parwal all around in the last over with a smashing six over extra cover. At the end of it all, Dyutish held the innings together to ensure the Island XI to score a massive 276/4 in the 30 overs, which was really unchasable with the batting line up of the Mainland XI. Dyutish ended up on 118 not out, a real class knock it was and was well worth watching, even from behind the stumps.

Rishi Daryanani and Yogesh Mahtani opened the batting for the Mainland XI team whilst Kanush and Shubham opened the bowling for the Island XI. The Mainland openers got off to a flying start as both batsman batted positively. Yogesh Mahtani and Rishi Daryanani played good shots all around the wicket and the Mainland XI were beautifully posed at 90/0 after 13 overs. Graeme bowled fairly shot through out the innings and got punished by both batsmen. Kanush bowled well, however Yogesh Mahtani played him to perfection. Shubham bowled a brilliant line and length but wasn’t consistent, he kept bowling 1 or 2 bad balls in a over and those bad balls were punished. Osman Khan bowled well overall. However when the Mainland XI were going brilliantly Rohan Boghani came to break the fun, he dismissed Rishi Daryanani in his first over LBW. Rishi trapped himself in front of the wicket, as he wanted to flick the ball but totally missed the ball instead, and ended scoring 32. Next in was Vinay Sajnani who played 1 brilliant shot before he was sent back to the pavilion yet again by Rohan Boghani. Vinay smashed the ball to mid-off before Vikram came and took a brilliant catch. He scored 6. Next in was Dheeraj Mohnani who also only stayed in for 4 overs before he was dismissed stumped, off Collin Bridges’ bowling, and a good piece of work done by Ritesh Jhaveri behind the stumps. Next to be dismissed was the man in action whilst the wickets were falling, Yogesh Mahtani, played a splendid knock all around the wicket and he was bowled by Rohan Boghani yet again. Rohan was bowling superbly and really was the main reason for Mainland XI losing wickets. Yogesh was unluckily dismissed at 47. Next in was Kieran Kumaria and he too batted like most other Mainland XI players, playing 1 or 2 superb shots before getting dismissed. He hit one smashing cover drive, before being plump LBW by Rohan yet again. From then on the Mainland XI really didn’t have much of a hope, as Kieran Kumaria was really the last hope for the Mainland team. After he got dismissed, no recognised batsman was left apart from Chandeep, who played a aggressive knock of 22 runs before he got a top edge of Rohan and was caught at short third man. Every other batsman chipped in with 5 or under runs. The Mainland XI after 90/0 after 13 were all out in 26.4 overs at 156.

However by saying that, full credit should go to Rohan who picked up 4 wickets for 26 runs in 7, he really bowled well. Osman Khan bowled well and got 1 wicket. However many congratulations to the Island XI who batted and bowled well and thoroughly deserved to win the game.

At KCC Island Schoolboys XI 276/4 (D. Chaudhuri 118*, Graeme 52) Mainland Schoolboys XI (Y. Mahtani 47, R. Daryanani 32, R. Boghani 4-26