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A First in France
Saturday's match was played over forty overs, and the South-East won the toss and chose to field in fine conditions. Trevor Yeomans struck twice in his first two overs, David Coates then bowled dangerman Uddika for 15 before powerful left-hander Halim Saeed was brilliantly run out by Bernhard Haak. The innings was rescued by Captain Chris Cope being last out for an invaluable 24, receiving support from Roger Spokes. Lyon were all out for 98 at the end of the twenty fourth over. South-East started their run chase well, Roshan Perera and Laurent Amiot putting on 31 in seven overs, but right-arm seamer Ali Raza then ripped out the top order, taking 4–8 in three overs and reducing the visitors to 50–5. Satpal Randhava steadied the ship with 24 crucial runs with support from local boy Anthony Schooling. But the tide turned when Atif Mian took three wickets in nine balls and Uddika took a brilliant caught and bowled and suddenly the South-East were 76–9 and facing defeat. In a tense finish tenth wicket pair David Coates and Sean Burke negotiated eight overs and scored the necessary 23 runs to win. South-East won the match by two wickets (they were twelve a side) and the inaugural Coupe d’Amitié was presented to South-East Regional president Len Terry. Sunday’s match was also played twelve a side over forty overs. Lyon won the toss and chose to field, and pacy right-armer Bilal Hassan removed both openers to leave South-East 26 for 2. But Satpal scored a masterful 56 over twenty four overs with support from Christiaan and Bernhard Haak, and then Jonathan Dwyer contributed a patient 13 to a sixth wicket partnership of 59, the highest of the weekend. Uddika then took four wickets for one run in eleven balls to reduce South-East to 161-9, but a useful eleventh wicket partnership of 30 between Maurice Mitchem and skipper Sean Burke pushed the visitors’ total to an imposing 191 in 39 overs. Lyon started disastrously, with Bernhard Haak claiming two wickets in the first over. But Uddika counter-attacked brilliantly, hitting the last ball of Christiaan’s first over to the short boundary for six, disappointing the Entrecasteaux club statistician and breaking Christiaan’s remarkable streak off twenty six consecutive overs without conceding a boundary, a streak stretching over six matches and three seasons. His combined analysis over that period; 26 – 9 – 44 – 9. Uddika received valuable support from Ali Shah and Chris Cope. Robert Hackwill helped Uddika add a further 26 for the sixth wicket, but the introduction of spin from one end slowed the run rate and only eighteen runs were scored in nine overs and Lyon was precariously poised at 104 – 7 after 27 overs. However, the Haak brothers quickly wrapped up the tail with four wickets in three overs, Bernhard finishing with 5-42. South-East won the match by 57 runs, with Uddika Bandaranayake awarded Man of the Match for 78 runs and 5-22. Satpal Randhava received a bottle of champagne as undisputed Man of the Series, with 80 runs in the two matches compiled over 38 overs, as well as two catches, two stumpings and a spectacular run out. |