Concordia CC and Five Continents CC win their Open League Semi-Finals.

Michael Bailey

September 1, 2003

Concordia CC will meet Five Continents CC in the final of the Open League of Saturday 6th September, at Markommannenstrasse, having overcome Vienna Cricket Club, with Five Continents taking their place in the final after victory against Lords CC.

Concordia surged into the final after winning the toss and electing to bat with opener Lakhmal Kasturiarachchige top scoring with 93, and Qamar Abbas scoring 59 as Concordia raced to 170-2 after just twenty overs. After losing a few quick wickets the sixth wicket partnership of 112 between Raza Aqif (56) and Mani Bharti (50) saw Concordia pile on the runs finishing on 334-9 in their allotted 50 overs, with Neil Foster (2-43) having the best figures for Vienna CC.

After a solid start, with Andrew Simpson-Parker and Tim Simpson adding 59 for the first wicket, Erwin Grasinger and Paul Armstrong shared a third wicket stand of 113, before Armstrong fell for 60, with Grasinger later falling for 47, but by then the asking rate was over 12 per over and after Vienna CC's mid-order frailties had been exposed the side ended up on 233-8, 101 runs short of victory.

In the other semi-final, Lords CC elected to bat against Five Continents CC, who had made the semi-finals for the first time ever. Lords CC were bowled out for 220, with five players weighing in with knocks of over thirty, although none went on to make a bigger score. Nitin Sharma finished with 4-31 off his ten overs, leaving Five Continents a run chase at 4.5 runs an over.

After losing both openers early on and number four batsman Sunil Kauschal, it was down to Vipin Kumar to play a captain's innings, and together with Navdeep Singh, who made 60, he built an innings that was to push Five Continents towards victory. After Navdeep got out, there was a slight wobble, but in the end Five Continents reached the target with three wickets in hand, with Vipin 82 not out, and with an over to spare.

For both Vienna CC and Lords CC it was their third straight semi-final defeat, with Lords once again falling to the supposed underdogs.

© Austrian Cricket Association

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