KOWLOON Cricket Club's Bharat Gohel gave the Hongkong selectors a timely reminder of his match-winning ability by bowling his club to an easy 136-run victory over the Hongkong Cricket Club in the annual challenge match at Cox's Road yesterday.
Gohel, the 37-year-old left-arm spinner who has been playing league cricket in Hongkong since 1967, produced man-of-the-match bowling figures of five for 58 off 15 overs on a flat batting track to help dismiss Hongkong for 140 in reply to KCC's 276 for seven in 50 overs.
With Hongkong's chairman of selectors, Rod Eddington, among the sparse crowd on a dull, chilly day, Gohel's efforts will not have gone unnoticed as the build-up begins to the International Cricket Council Trophy in Kenya next February and March.
On his day, Gohel can literally turn any match in his side's favour, like in the 1986 ICC Trophy in England when he took six for 11 against Fiji.
Gohel's problem over the years, though, has been inconsistency, which cost him a place in Hongkong's squad for the 1990 ICC Trophy in The Netherlands.
But yesterday he was back to his best, always in control and enticing five batsmen to hit him straight to a fielder.