A resounding 126 run victory for Lords Cricket Club against Vienna Cricket Club enabled them to temporarily dislodge Concordia CC at the top of the Open League, although Concordia do now have a game in hand over Lords. Winning the toss and batting, Lords posted the highest total of the season, 344 for 9, against a weakened Vienna CC attack, for whom only Neil Foster (10-1-43-2) and Andrew Simpson-Parker (6-0-29-3) made any impression, with Arvinde Ghai, playing his first game of the season making 94, Wasif Mohammed 67 and Deepak Sharma 61 - his second fifty in consecutive games.
Vienna CC's reply was stopped in its tracks by the bowling of Ajay Grover and Sukhvir Hira, both of whom were on hat-tricks at various points of the innings, although Andrew Simpson-Parker kept the runs coming from his end before ultimately being 9th out for 144 - the highest score of the season, and only four runs short of his highest ever - made against Greece in 1997. He shared in a sixth wicket partnership worth 134 with Michi Nedoma (11), but any resistance was put pay to by the introduction of Parivesh Padhe who cleaned up the tail to finish with 3-28.
The victory by Lords CC puts them ahead of Concordia CC, with the fixture calendar pitting the two teams against each other next Saturday, in a winner-takes-all clash, in which the winner is likely to gain the "easier" semi-final draw, although Lords will be wary of this draw having slipped up to unfancied Pakistan Falken CC teams in 2001 and 2002 in the semi-finals. The same day will see Vienna CC take on Pakistan Falken CC, with a victory likely to confirm their third place, with Five Continents and United Nations CC both chasing the fourth and final qualifying place.