…Hashim plays An Incredible 127 Runs Off 49 Balls To Beat His Own Record
By Michael Egiethua
Yesterday, Sunday 19th of September, 2021 was just another training session in the Cricket Oval of the Cricket Club Abuja situated at Package “B” of the National Stadium Abuja. The game of the day was a training session that had the CCA members divided into two seemingly balanced teams A and B.
In the first inning, Team A with Aditya as captain scored 210 runs in 20 Overs. The highlight of the inning was the explosive performance of Mohammad Hashim who demystified all the bowlers on the Team B list. He played and scored Sixes and Fours with so much ease on all sides of the Oval making batting look so easy and exiting.
At the end of Hashim’s Batting exploits, he had scored 127 runs beating his previous record of 116 runs in 2019 at the India Cricket League hosted by the Cricket Club Abuja. Also he beat the record of Pankaj, (who played 32 runs off Six Balls against Femi Talabi earlier in 2021) in the number of runs scored off 6 balls in an over by playing 34 runs off Six balls(4,6,6,6,6,6) in an over bowled by Adnan making Adnan take the record off Femi Talabi who was previously played 32 runs in an over of 6 balls. Hashim had earlier held this record in 2014 when he played Kaushik 30 runs in an over before the record was broken by Pankaj. Now Hashim has taken his record back and there is much expectations as the rivalry between Hashim and Pankaj continues the batting crease.
At the end of the first inning, Team A scored 210 runs. What appeared to be a daunting task, chasing 210 runs in 20 overs was diligently chased by team B which led by Saad Butt.
At the end of 20 overs Team B was able to put in a decent 181 runs with top scorers being Kalpa 58 runs, Saad 51 runs and Young lad Shedrack 25 runs. However, this was not enough to check the excellent performance on Team A in the very highly contested training session of the Cricket Club Abuja. Team A won.
Hashim is a Nigerian International of Pakistani extraction. He represented Nigeria in 2017 in the West African league.
Asked after the game what his advice to the younger players was, Hashim said, patience, eyes on the ball always, keep a straight bat, always respect the good balls and when the bad balls come, punish them!
Speaking at pavilion to this writer during the game about the upcoming Nigeria Cricket Federation Zonal Board election, which Abuja falls under, one of the CCA members contesting for the North Central slot on the Board of the NCF, Mr. Oludare Aimola said in reaction to a question about what to expect if he wins, that we should expect a lot more of grassroots development and competitive cricket tournaments. He said once we focus on those two, every other thing will fall in place.
Speaking to this writer on the telephone, the second contender to the North Central Board and a former member and past President of the Cricket Club Abuja Engr. Emeka Onyema said he had done it before and will do it again if he wins the slot for the North Central.
The other CCA member expected to be in the new board of the NCF is Mr. Samni Ajayi. He was a member of the recently dissolved board and is hopeful in a reelection bid as Sponsor’s representative.
Both Oludare Aimola and Emeka Onyema were past Presidents of the Cricket Club Abuja. The current President of the Club is Mr. Regi George who was unavoidably absent at this last Sunday’s training session.
Every Sunday is Cricket training/Match Days at the CCA. The Cricket Club Abuja is a multi racial sports Club with a keen interest in promoting cricket activities and development of game in the FCT. It offers its members mostly cricket lovers, the opportunity to train and play matches which it organizes from time to time. Membership is by subscription.
We at the Cricket Club Abuja wish all our members contesting for various positions in the Zonal Board elections slated for Wednesday, 22nd of September in Jos Success in the election and may the best man win.
