School report 1999/2000

The year 1999-2000 was another enjoyable year for the school cricket team. Lots of Form 1 boys joined the team and attendance at the training sessions was good.

Since most of the seniors had left the school this year, we only had two sixth formers at the beginning of the season. We had to struggle a bit to form our senior team. Fortunately, we have found some talented players in the juniors and promoted them to the senior stage. For the juniors, we have more than enough players, so the only problem we have is how to rotate our squad.

The 1999-2000 season was a great season for the juniors. At first we thought that we might have the problem of shortage of players, but we managed to recruited many new Form 1 members which will certainly be a great asset for the team in future. Owing to the inexperience of the new members, we were unable to win any of our inter-school matches, but through these games, our new members gained some experience and learned more about the game. Here are the results of our games:

Our first game was against West Island School. Winning the toss, we elected to field first. Due to wayward bowling and reckless fielding, we could barely get any breakthroughs and our opponents hit 126 of their allotted 20 overs. In reply, we could only hit 26 due to false communications.

Our next game was against South Island School. Losing the toss, we were sent in to bat first. Our captain, Neeraj Mahboobani, made a decent knock of 26. However, wickets also kept falling at the other end and in the end, we could only make 52 in our 20 overs. Although we had fought hard in our bowling, we still lost by 8 wickets.

Then, before the examinations, we were to play KGV. Winning the toss, we decided to bat first. Nitesh Sacheti and Neeraj Mahboobani made 21 not out and 25 not out respectively which led us to a score of 85 in our allotted 20 overs. We had high spirits and our bowler, Sodhit Surana took 3 wickets. But again, owing to reckless fielding, we lost to our opponents having 3 overs to spare.

After the examinations, we were to play Delia Memorial School. Winning the toss, we elected to bat first. Due to training sessions not being held during the Christmas Holidays, most of our players were out of form. We could only hit 39 runs. Neeraj Mahboobani did well by taking 2 wickets for 6, but our opponents, having such a small total to chase, they hit the runs in 10 overs.

Our last game was against Island School. Losing the toss, we were sent in to bat first. We made a stern 70 with Anthony Marrin and Neeraj Mahboobani hitting 21 not out and 12 respectively. This was our best score of the year and we showed improvement in batting towards the end of the season. Wanting a victory, our players fought hard and again, Anthony Marrin took 2 wickets. However, we still lost to our opponents only having 4 balls to spare!

We played our first game with Delia Memorial School. Losing the toss, we fielded first. Some quick run-outs and tight bowling made our opposition tough to score. Parvesh Fabiani and Neeraj Mahboobani bowled very well with 3 and 2 wickets respectively. Chasing an easy target of 121, three of our top batsmen were sent back to the pavilion with the score on 11. Louis Chan (58 not out) and Chandeep Gill (34) held their nerves in this tense situation and contributed a century partnership to guide us home.

The second game was against Island School. Sent into bat first, rash strokes and lack of concentration led us to failure. We only made 44 with just one batsman reaching double figures. After a couple of bad overs, our bowling livened up and got a couple of quick wickets. That made us back into the game. Unfortunately, we lost the game by 5 wickets at last.

Our next opponents were KGV. We were missing a couple of players as the junior team also had to play at the same time that day. Without two of our frontline bowlers, our bowling was neither penetrative nor economical. We let our opposition score over 170 in 25 overs. Our batsmen performed quite well with a big total to chase. Chandeep again batted with great determination for a quick 30 and Willis Ho with a patient 22. Louis Chan (41 not out) made some big hits at the later stage and youngster Justin Chiu batted well to support his captain. We lost the game by 51 runs.

Our final game before the year 2000 was against Barbarians. Our captain, Louis Chan, was ruled out of the game due to serious ankle injury sustained in an inter-school football match. Stand-in captain Dion Yip bowled very well for his 2 wickets after being sent into field first. Anthony Marrin was the pick of the bowlers with three good wickets. Neeraj Mahboobani's rustic and solid defence gave him an unconquered 42. But that was not enough to win the game as wickets kept falling at the other end. Eventually, we lost the game by a small margin, 10 runs.

We were awarded a win for the next game against West Island School since they failed to put up a side.

We got walked over in the final game against South Island School as we also failed to put up a side. We did not have enough players to play that day because the juniors had to play at the same time.

The year's result was rather disappointing since we did not win too many games. The main reason is that we did not have enough senior players. With lots of new comers joining the team and more training sessions after the season finishes, I think we will do better next season.