Naqvi ton leads Village to win

A CENTURY to Tracy Village batting anchor Antum Naqvi set his team on the way to victory against Waratah at the Village Green on Saturday.

After being sent in to bat, Waratah was for the most part on the back foot against some classy spin bowling by Tracy off-spinners Todd Murphy 4-15 (10 overs) and Reiley Mark 3-31 (10 overs).

Only a rearguard batting display by the Weerasinghe siblings – Madura, 40, and Udara, 35 – and a rollicking innings from Himesh Sandaradura (34 no, 25 balls faced) gave Tahs a respectable 9-202 after their allotted 50 overs.

Village lost a couple of early wickets, including skipper Josh Kann (23), who opened the batting, and at 2-27 the Red Cap bowlers were aggressively approaching their work but Naqvi (100 not out, 113 balls faced, 11 fours) was rock solid leading his side to 4-205 in 45.1 overs.

Keen to follow up on his stellar season in Victoria Premier cricket where he was rewarded with his first a rookie contract, Waratah batsman Ashley Chandrasinghe did not pose a threat to the Tracy bowlers, but he remains buoyant and is looking toward the future.

The 20-year-old Chandrasinghe is playing his fifth season of Darwin Premier Grade Cricket during his southern off-season with Casey South Melbourne Cricket Club and said he was using Darwin Cricket as a way to improve his white-ball game.

“It’s pretty good quality cricket up here and I guess a bonus is not having to endure a Melbourne winter – but really, I enjoy playing up here in Darwin and will use it to work on some skills and gaining experience in the white-ball game,” he said.

“I’ve had a couple of pretty decent grade seasons in Melbourne; went OK in the finals this year, although we lost the grand final and also scored runs in most of the second XI games I played.”

In the only other game played, a 99-run opening partnership between Liam Blackford (69) and Dhanusha Gamage (42) set the platform for a PINT total 7-208 at the close. Leg-spinner Yuvraj Sharma (6-40, 10 overs) was again the Nightcliff standout bowler.

However, a series of strong top-order partnerships set the Tigers on the road to victory at 3-211 (40.5 overs) Sharma (49) and Josh Brown (62) unbeaten.

No play was possible at Cazaly’s Oval in the match between Palmerston and Southern Districts due to heavy local rain on Friday.