Match: British Columbia U-18 v Alberta U-18 at Hugo Ray Park, Pitch #2, West Vancouver
British Columbia Under 18’s 185 all out (41.4 overs; Avneet Virdi 106, Wardan-ul-Haq 4 for 24)
Alberta Under-18’s 188 for six wickets (tbc overs; Ishant Sharma 69, Darin Modi 38)
Result: Alberta Under-18’s won by four wickets. (Alberta won the toss and elected to field)
British Columbia lost early wickets at 4, 12, 15, 15 and 21 before Avneet Virdi hit back with an innings of 106 that included eight boundaries and nine sixes. Wardan-ul-Haq took four of the wickets as BC floundered to 21-5.

Alberta responded with an opening stand of 84 that ended when Darin Modi was caught off Avneet Virdi’s bowling for 38. Opening bat Ishant Sharma carried on to score 69 before he was stumped, also off Virdi’s bowling, with the running total on 150 for five. Another wicket fell three runs later, but Farhan Malik (23 not out) and Wadan-ul-Haq (16 not out) carried Alberta to a four wicket victory. Virdi took two wickets for 43 runs from his ten overs.
Match: Ontario U-18 v Combined Provinces U-18 at Hugo Ray Park, Pitch #1, West Vancouver
Ontario Under 18’s 252 for six wickets (50 overs; Siddhanth Shekhar 51, Talha Shaikh 37, Kumar Singh Debdiayal 31 not out, Rakesh Ramoutar 3 for 53)
Combined Provinces Under-18’s 106 all out (36 overs; Kunal Bhatt 5 for 17)
Result: Ontario Under-18’s won by 146 runs (Ontario won the toss and elected to bat)
Ontario openers Stephan Joseph (26) and Thurshan Anatharajan (23) added 68 runs for the first wicket and all eight Ontario batsmen who came to the crease made at least double figures. Individual scores varied from Yug Rao’s 15 (batting at number four) to Siddhanth Shekhar’s 51 (batting at number seven). Talha Shaikh made 37 and Kumar Singh Debidayal scored 31 not out. Shekhar and Debidayal added some 83 runs for Ontario’s sixth wicket. Rakesh Ramoutar took three wickets for 53 runs from his nine overs.
The Combined Provinces lost wickets at a fairly steady rate, reaching 106 all out in 36 overs. Six batsmen reached double figures, so as the players on the Combined side become used to each other, things will hopefully improve as the tournament progresses. Kunal Batt took five of the later wickets for 17 runs in eight overs.
*** Thanks to the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League for posting scanned copies of the scorecards from these opening day matches. ****