Champions Kowloon Cricket Club A opened their Hong Kong First Division title campaign with a flourish yesterday, but showed signs of vulnerability in a 6-2 victory over Nav Bharat A at Happy Valley.
KCC, who won the treble for the first time in their history last season, were still happy to grab the points as they made a winning start to their league title defence.
Arif Ali scored a brace of goals and KCC showed their scoring depth with goals from Paul Bailey, Ken Wong, Deric Leung and Neil Johnson.
'You have to be pleased with our victory, although we struggled a bit in the first half.
'It was only during the last 20 minutes of the game that we clearly were in control,' said KCC captain Ishtiaq Khan, who helped the Cricketers to the league, Holland Cup and the Guru Nanak Trophy titles last season.
Nav Bharat, always a danger and hungry to recapture glories of the past, replied with two goals - one from the penalty spot that was buried by Siver Singh and another scored by Amarjeet Singh.