Luke Stokes rewrote the record books for CMLCC as he made the club’s record score of 167 as Lanna made a remarkable 351 for 5 in 29.3 overs to beat CMCC Blues by five wickets with three balls to spare in a 30-over friendly at Gymkhana Club.
All of the Lanna team had played in the recent Chiang Mai Sixes including Henry Meech and Zeeshan who were making their Lanna debuts in the match but Lanna’s bowling and fielding had been put to the sword chiefly by Aasif Chashoo who turned back time by hitting his first century for almost 20 years and Irshad had taken his chance when opening the batting to make 80.
Both openers retired out so Lanna’s bowlers only claimed one wicket during CMCC’s innings of 350 for 3 and captain Elliot Lodge read the riot act as the teams came off the field. In retrospect, it was probably lucky that Ismail and Insha didn’t bat for longer or CMCC’s total could have been even more. Henry and Ton bowled useful overs during their spells and Ian Harling could be content with 4 overs for 36 with only one wide.
The stats suggested that Luke Stokes would need to get a double century for Lanna to achieve this chase of 351 so in fact the rest of Lanna’s batting line-up played their parts magnificently. Richard Cowles batted brilliantly in the first 10 overs to give Luke Stokes time to get his eye in so when Cowles got rather becalmed Stokes was batting on full power.
A crucial moment came when CMCC’s keeper dropped Cowles only to be harshly rebuked by the bowler with the result that Rayees marched off the field. From that point CMCC were never the same in the field as Stokes hit a series of sixes and fours.
Cowles was out for 49 after an opening stand of 113 in 13 overs but Leng quickly got going and after Stokes hit 27 in an over from Asif Noor the runs kept flowing as Leng supported him superbly by reaching his first fifty for Lanna in just 21 balls.
Zeeshan came in and was content to give Stokes the strike and the opener broke Richard Cowles’ record score for Lanna of 136 and quickly raced past 150. A double century looked on the cards but Stokes was yorked by Ismail for 167 from 82 balls with 15 fours and 12 sixes.
Stokes was annoyed with himself for not seeing Lanna home to victory but Zeeshan immediately took control by hitting Ismail for two sixes in the same over and he kept hitting boundaries whoever was bowling and CMCC were flagging badly in the field.
Zeeshan reached this fifty in just 22 balls as Lanna gained a remarkable five-wicket victory as they made the highest score in their history and probably one of the most brilliant chases in Chiang Mai cricket history.
Luke Stokes has now hit three centuries for Lanna but others to have reached the landmark include Gary Chatfield, Martin Cardno, Jon Scales and Richard Young but never has there been a day with so much destruction in local cricket with a total of 42 sixes and 59 fours hit in a remarkable day’s cricket.