Sunny skies and warm temperatures greeted Powell River Royals Cricket Club and Arrowsmith Cricket Club for a match at Qualicum Beach Civic Centre Field on Sunday, July 22. Powell River won the toss and elected to field first with play getting underway at 11:30 am.
“Qualicum started well and scored freely,” said Royals team captain Alex Rawnsley. “We generated some chances early, however, catches went just wide or over fielders and ultimately they got out to the drinks break with 15 overs in without losing a wicket and having scored 85 runs.”
Royals regrouped and earned an early breakthrough after the break. Rawnsley (1/13 off 4) garnered the much-needed wicket with a fly out to Charles Van Zyl. From there, wickets fell in quick succession.
Powell River bowlers Aaron Pikkarainen (1/7 off 2) and Adam MacLaine (1/9 off 2) each struck, then Keyur Dalal (2/3 off 2) and Charl Meyer (1/16 off 5) finished up the innings and held Qualicum to 144. Aseem Ahluwalia and Van Zyl also bowled for Powell River, but were not rewarded with a wicket.
Powell River batsmen started off shaky with Kishan Manvar (6) and MacLaine (3) each out early. However, a strong partnership between Dalal (42) and Aditya Gaur (22) steadied the ship and put Powell River into a winning position. But a quick collapse with Gaur, Rawnsley (1) and Meyer (0) swung the game back into Qualicum's favour.
“Pikkarainen chipped in nine valuable runs while Ahluwalia (10 not out) and Jessy Singh (20 not out) gave us a shot,” said Rawnsley.
With Royals needing 12 off the last over for the win, and eventually four off the last ball, Arrowsmith held firm and won by three runs. Final score was 144-141.
A 42-run and two-wicket performance earned Dalal man of the match recognition for Powell River.
“It was a solid game and it was played in great spirit,” said Rawnsley. “There were people very new to the game on both sides and it was a good afternoon.”
Next for the club is a break with practices resuming at Oceanview gym in the new year, hopefully with some new players to add to the team, said Rawnsley. Anyone interested in trying the sport is welcome to come out.
“We’ll regroup over the offseason,” he added, “and come back next year likely in February/March indoors.”
