Match Reports 2007
Will appear here in due course.
You will be please to learn that now we have Mr Phil Davies back in Finland the quality of the match reports will revert to their previous high standard (because he actually knows something about the game).
Match Reports 2006
Match reports in summary format:
Sunday 13.08.06, Empire v FinnPak B - FinnPak B 135 all out - Empire 136 for 6 - EMPIRE WIN by 4 wickets
Another sunny day found us at Viikki for the final game of the SM45-over league with match against FinPak B. Imran won the toss, put our opponents in to bat, and promptly handed over Captain?s duties for the second week in a row.
Four bowlers were used, Imran, Zaki, Zahed and "Deadly Dudman". Mani bowled seven overs and took 2 for 18 - the best bowling I think I have seen from anyone wearing an Empire shirt in three years. He was quite literally too good for the batsmen, beating the edge of the bat on more occasions than I could count. An inspired bowling change at the drinks break saw Deadly Marc brought into the attack, and his combination of line and length J saw him walk away with a five-wicket haul from four overs 5 for 19, and FinPak B were dismissed for the paltry sum of 135 all within 26 overs. I don't think it's churlish to add here that the total minus extras was 85 - we maintained our "average" of 50 wides right to the death...
After another of Lloyd's Luscious Lunches, a slightly more sensible batting order was put together by Phil Imran and Zaki, with Marcel and Zahed doing the honours at 1 and 2. The total was chipped away at, steadily, and the only thing that stopped Mani collecting a fifty was Mani. He let the FinPak players' sledging get to him and got himself out for just 33.
Empire won the final game of the regular season by 4 wickets, knocking over the 135 required in the 20th over.
The Umpire's MOTM was Deadly, but the Captain's award went to Mani for the combination of the batting and bowling.
Friday 11.08.06, Empire v MTS/Navy T20, Viikki - Empire 102 all out - MTS 96 all out - EMPIRE WIN by 6 runs
The final regular T20 game of the season against Thinking Mens' Navy got off to a good start with Marcel winning the toss and deciding to bat. To make things even better, he top scored with 57, in a stylish innings, out of a respectable total of 102.
Following the turn around, TMN were down to seven men to bat, and once again the sporting side of Empire came to the fore. TMN requested last man standing, but Empire refused, with Marcel and Zahed offering their opponents the opportunity to have a batsman go in twice instead! This was an offer that nearly turned round and bit them later on.
Some sloppy bowling - why is it we give away 50 extras in every game we play, no matter what format it is? - meant that only the TMN captain's rather odd decision to bat himself twice let us off the hook. He was last man out with the score on 96 - just six runs short, and he was left high and dry on 50-something not out.
Empire won their final T20 game of the season, and progressed to the semi-final with
Sunday 06.08.06, Empire v Espoo T20, Viikki - Empire 147 for 6 - Espoo 116 all out - EMPIRE WIN by 31 runs
After a nice simple lunch by Chez Lloyd and shipped in by Jo Hadley Transport (thanks guys) setting us up for an enjoyable afternoon of cricket, it was back to work with Marcel winning the toss and deciding to put us in to bat. We got off to a bad start with Marcel going clean bowled going for a slog in the second over with only 5 on the board, but we recovered with Zahid and Gary taking us past 70 in the 7th over when Zahid went caught off a weak prod to mid off. Haroon and Gary then took us through to 130 in the 17th over when
Our fielding was really good and it was a well deserved win. Well done Empire! A good team performance and lots of fun. It was a good day's cricket with the honours even at the end.
The Umpire's Man of the Match was a well deserved Haroon 31 runs 3 wickets and a catch who together with Marcel's Empire CC MOM
We hosted both the rescheduled home and away T20 fixtures against
We were up to full strength on starting our innings with the lower order posting decent enough scores. However Marcel went cheaply and despite a recovery staged by the oldies Gary and Nick, we were never going to get near their total.
Match report courtesy of Phil.
Imran asked Phil to do the honours and he duly lost the toss for about the tenth time in a row! We were put into bat by a FinnPak A side clearly looking for an early day, and the way the openers batted, it looked like they were going to get their way. Were it not for some wild bowling by the FP opening bowlers, our 40 - 4 would have been more like 25 - 4.
Spirited innings from Haroon - 33, Marcel - 28, and Reesh - 21, meant we lasted 26 overs (pretty much the norm) and finished up on 157 all out.
Our attack yet again struggled with line, and we ended up letting 47 extras slide, with more than 30 wides going on to the total. Imran took 2 - 62 from 9, Maruti 3 - 50 from 7, and Zaki 2 - 43 from 7. We put down three catches, although there were superb catches taken by Laurence, Phil, and two especially excellent efforts from Siva in the deep, and the fielding, overall, was first class.
This was a game we didn't expect to win - playing against one of the top four - but it has to be said, we should have won it! More application is needed by the opening batsmen, and more focus on line by the bowlers - their length was faultless, but their line let them down. That said, we seem to be relying on three or four people to do all the donkey work, both with bat and ball, and that needs to change going forward.
Bring on FinnPak B!
A tight match going down to the last over. You were all there so you don't need a match report! Excellent Club fun. See you all on the 27th August for a re-match.
Sunday 16.7.06, SM45 Empire v SKK Sharks, Ruskeasuo - Empire 72 all out, SKK 73 for 1 - SKK by 9 wickets
Match Report courtesy of Reesh Sharma.
With a very poor turn out (only 5 players at the toss) the opposition suggested that we bat first and we scored 72 for 4. SKK scored 73 for the loss of only one wicket. Jan's wicket keeping was good but in general a highly unacceptable performance with players arriving late.
Saturday 08.7.06, SM45 Empire v Turku, Viikki - Empire 89 all out, Turku 93/2. Turku by 8 wickets
Match report courtesy of TCC!
TCC arrived with only 9 players and were very happy to see only 9 Empire players. With a very weakened bowling attack Paul and Martin had to open for TCC. Lloyd went clean bowled in the first over to a ball that swung back in from leg and this took the initiative away from Empire then. Zaid went for big hits straight back down the ground off straight balls. With only 9 fielders it was a sensible tactic but one that TCC were happy to live with knowing he would miss one sooner or later. He did, although he had made a good total by then. Imran also played for too many big hits and failed to build a proper innings. Marcel showed a more sensible batting style but also took too many risks. Zaid, Imran and Marcel gone the innings collapsed. More dedication could have eked out precious runs and forced
TCC figured that they would also benefit from extras as the bowlers rutted run up offered nothing to help a bowler gain rhythm and had realised this led to wides. Thus the obvious brief for TCC's batting plan was to pick up singles, keep a straight bat and play no risky shots - it was a defensive plan. As Empire bowled too short and wide at least once an over allowing off drives to or over the boundary TCC's task became easy. With TCC on 47 Imran induced the first false stroke of the innings leading Paul into getting an inside edge on to his pads and then the stumps. A deserved wicket for the only consistant bowler of the day. Naim fell soon after playing his first poor shot of the day and giving Lloyd a well taken catch at short mid off. However, Timo (playing cricket for the first time in a year) and Dan played in the same style of running singles and dispatching the bad ball. The runs kept on coming at 6 an over and Empire's total was surpassed in 15.1 overs - I think. No real sustained pressure was exerted on TCC and looking back TCC decided that the difference between the sides was experience and not having to take risks to make runs.
Hope that's constructive and neutral enough for you. Good luck with the rest of the season (TCC).
Saturday 01.7.06, SM45 Espoo v Empire, Leppavaara - Empire 206/10, Espoo 211/1 - Espoo by 9 wickets
Match report courtesy of Reesh Sharma.
Marcel and Richard made a very good start with quick singles but got unlucky. Zaki and Nick then had a brilliant partnership with Zaki close to his century and Nick giving an excellent performance and scoring 25, making boundaries (even a 6!). Imran then went for a Golden Duck (mind elsewhere maybe?) Siva and Haroon were also unlucky but Maruthi managed to survive longer partnering all the tail enders with Jan not out! Espoo's ground is small and they made quick work of chasing down our score with between 15 to 20 runs average per over taking the win in after only an hour at the crease. It was a good sunny day for cricket and the game was enjoyed by all with Zaki and Nick's partnership the main talking point. Well done lads!
Saturday 17.6.06, SM45 SKK Lions v Empire, Ruskeasuo - Match cancelledWe were unable to field a team for this fixture. This unfortunate incident highlights the importance of posting your availability to play in games (on the forum) well in advance so that Lloyd does not have to ring around to get a team together the night before a match. It would also be polite to be able to notify our opponents a few days before a fixture if we need to cancel.
SKK Lions were awarded the points by default.
Sunday 11.6.06, SM45 Empire v Helsinki, Viikki - Empire 95 all out, Helsinki 99 for 0 - Helsinki by 10 wickets
We were put in to bat, opening with Zaki and Reesh. Unfortunately, and quite uncharacteristically, Zaki went clean bowled almost immediately which was the last thing we needed as we were fielding an under strength team. Luckily Reesh was able to stay there for 25 overs but his partners all fell too easily. Zahid managed to knock a decent 16 but we were 95 all out in a very mediocre performance.
To compound our problems
So after last week's victory the team turned up full of confidence. However, we were delayed for half an hour due to the opposition getting lost but eventually got going, Lloyd losing the toss for the third time this year and was asked to bowl.
We took up where we left off last week with some good bowling from Zaki and Imran who had the batsmen on their back foot for the first twelve overs after which FinnAsia were around 30 for 4, Zaki taking three wickets and Imran one. The next bowling pair were Marc and Zahid, who both bowled well with Marc taking an excellent 3 wickets for 8 from his spell! Smelling a low total to chase Lloyd decided to bring back our opening bowlers to finish off the job, but only Zaki was needed and he saw them off in one agonising over (literally). For some unknown reason one of the FinnAsia players decided not to wear a box (I think he will remember from now onwards) and yes one of Zaki's deliveries went straight to the box area (ouch!). After a five minute delay he came back to the crease (sporting a box this time) and a rather gingerly waited for another Zaki delivery (with tears in his eyes no doubt), took a wild swing at it and was cleaned bowled. We hope the poor fella was already married with kids. Their final batsman took a Zaki special on the pads and while we were appealing their Captain decided to try for a run that even Phil might have thought suicidal, only problem being his partner was day-dreaming and just stayed put for an easy run out. All over and done with in 21 overs.
After an excellent lunch courtesy of Lloyd we opened with the Kamal brothers. We started to build confidently with the help of some loose bowling and our score was ticking along nicely. After a thirty partnership Zahid was cleaned bowled for 10. Marcel's leftiness then confused the bowlers for a bit and we were picking up even more wides as he did a great job frustrating the bowlers with his deliberate batting. Cleaned bowled off a full toss Marcel gave way to Lloyd who together with Zaki steamed on toward victory in a relatively short time. Both went for the slog to win the game (and with Lloyd facing we were all worried that if he hit the winning run we would never hear end of it) but it was another wide from the FinnAsia lads that gave us victory in less than 15 overs.
Zaki was the Umpire's Man of the Match with 4 wickets and 22 runs.
Tuesday 30.5.06, T20 - SKK v Empire, Ruskeasuo - SKK 220 for 1, Empire 127 all out - SKK by 93 runs
Well the honours are even for his season with SKK's T20 kids as they made a good job of saving their faces after their defeat at our hands last week!
The pressure was on them and fair is fair they had a great asset in their openers who had an excellent 50 plus partnership before being split apart by Jan 'Snoopy' von Steuben's own version of zee bouncing bomb! Congratulations to Jonathan Scramans who managed a century, although assisted by a small ground, some God awful bowling (Gary) and us managing to drop at least 4 catches I have to say. However, on the bright side some of our lbw appeals may have faired better on another day.
We then let the umpire officiating during SKK's innings (Yasir - SKK) field for them as they were one short. Good old Empire eh? However our innings would have needed to see a phenomenal run rate achieved to threaten their innings total and things did not go well from the start with Marcel's dismissal clean bowled for a duck (mind on Spanish and Chemistry exams me thinks). Zahid then set to, to move things along but he was a little hasty with the run rate in mind and hitting fours and sixes left right and centre was always a risky business and so he went clean bowled for 24. Haroon (34) then stamped his authority on the innings and did a sound job of propping up the tail-enders and moving us past 120 with
Opposition's sportmanship: Better.
Fun factor: It's always fun to play SKK! ;-)
Saturday 27.05.06, SM45 - Vantaa v Empire, Viikki - Vantaa 156 all out, Empire 158 for 8 - EMPIRE WIN!
Well done Empire! Our first SM45 win!
Our grass at Viikki got its first SM45 work out in this Vantaa "home" fixture (due to their own pitch being unavailable) and on what turned out to be a nice dry sunny day (never trust weather forecasters) Vantaa won the toss and decided to bat.
We took a couple of wickets early on with a close catch taken by Lloyd off an off-side drive (ouch!) being one of the early highlights. We did our usual tight and consistent bowling with the new dimension of Marc's repertoire adding to our effectiveness. They were 50 or so for 5 at one point before recovering and moving steadily through to 100. A quick spell of wickets (including a great caught and bowled from Zaki) saw them tottering around 130 but they soldiered on to 156 before we saw them off.
A nice lunch (shipped in by
Well done Empire! It was true team performance and we have now shown that we can bat when we need to and when the pressure is on. Big pluses today had to be bowling
The Umpire's Man of the Match was a well deserved Zaki who was the backbone of our batting order and posted 39 and took 3 for 22.
Opposition's sportsmanship: First rate. Vantaa are good guys!
Fun Factor: Fantastic!
Wednesday 24.5.06, T20 - SKK, Viikki - Empire 76 all out, SKK 61 all out - EMPIRE WIN!
Well what a great day for the T20 lads and lasses! We won the toss and Marcel elected to bat, opening with Zahid in the face of chilly and windy conditions. The pair put on an excellent partnership of 54 after which our middle order wickets fell way too quickly with us all out for 76. Back to the batting nets for the middle order!
Marcel and Zahid then began with some good economical bowling, with Anni giving a solid performance behind the stumps, but our initial concern that that 76 may not be enough were compounded by there being no break-through in the first 6 overs. However, Haroon(ey) opened his spell with a wicket straight away which was just what was needed. Marcel then decided to save both his and Zahid's last overs for later and so let Gary and Haroon have a go at them. Haroon then proceeded to take 4 wickets in total (and Gary bowled well too) so that after only 4 more overs we had their 2 best batsmen out, which was a key factor as they then had only one half decent batsman left. With 2 wickets left SKK had made only 58 runs so Marcel decided to go for it and gave Zahid his last over with which he took a wicket just at the right time to bring in their last batsman. Then both Gary and Haroon(ey) tried but couldn't get through and so Marcel decided to use his very last over and took it in the nick of time! It would be an understatement to say that it was a sweet victory! Man of the Match was Zahid.
All in all it was a super day, a great victory for all the youngsters in the T20 squad to savour for a while. Well done!
Opposition's sportmanship: Not rated.
Fun factor: Totally brilliant!
Sunday 13.5.06, T20 - MTS Navy, Suomenlinna - MTS Navy 62 all out, Empire 65/3 - EMPIRE WIN!
Well the afternoon got off to a bad start when the official Helsinki CC umpire failed to turn up! However, as it was a nice sunny day both teams agreed to play anyway so as not to completely waste our time. Both teams will be making an official complaint to the FCA!
We fielded three novice players (Mikko, Jan and Jo) who accomplished themselves very well. We played a nice friendly game and did some solid fielding with some good shots from MTS/Navy saved right on the boundary. Jan was solid behind the stumps (watch out Nick!). MTS/Navy made steady progress but rather faded after the loss of their openers. Marcel and Haroon produced some economical bowling early on taking a couple of wickets each. Jo came on in his bowling debut and after a shaky couple of opening balls took 2 wickets in his very first over! We opened well and, despite losing Mikko early on, moved swiftly towards their total in a very short time. Haroon then kindly retired to allow other batsmen the chance to bat with Tobias hitting a four to win the game. Unfortunately Laurence, Marcel, Jan and Jo did not get to bat and Marcel (our Captain!) needed to umpire his own team's innings which rather spoiled his day having to give his own batsmen out! Marcel's Man of the Match was Haroon. Well done to MTS Navy, they are good guys and we all had a nice friendly game with some people staying over afterwards to play some more.
Whether the result will stand without the official FCA umpire having been in attendance will need to be clarified!
Opposition's sportsmanship: Excellent! Erinomainen! They are good guys!
Fun factor: Excellent! .
Sunday 7.5.06, SM45 - Tampere CC, Messukyla, Tampere 233 all out, Empire 92 all out.
Well the lads scrubbed up nicely after the winter hibernation and kitted out with the club's new match kit we were up for a great game on what turned out to be a cloudless and perfectly sunny day for cricket. We bowled to plan but made heavy work of dismissing Tampere who had a pretty solid batting order, with us not seeing them off until after 39 overs. Our batting performance then failed us once again with some of our stronger batsmen losing their wickets far too quickly and easily leaving a hopeless task for the tail enders. A good fielding performance from us once again but more work to do in the new batting nets I fear. Still, a nice day to start the season with (weather wise that is) and many more to follow we hope.
Opposition sportsmanship: Excellent
Fun factor: Good
Saturday, 29.5.06,
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