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19 · Wednesday, July 28, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com WICKET TIME: Oakville and Hamilton's cricket clubs got together Sunday for league action at Glenashton Park. In near photo, Oakville's Nasrullah Syed prepares to make a catch. In far photo, Oakville's John Kirstein delivers a bowl. The two teams played to a 144144 tie. PHOTOS BY ERIC RIEHL / SPECIAL TO THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Cricket match short on time, not excitement Perhaps the only shame about Sunday's cricket match between Oakville and Hamilton is that it didn't last longer. The two squads battled to an exciting draw at Glenashton Park in the final regular-season home game for the Oakville Cricket Club. The seven points Oakville earned with the 144144 tie were enough for the team to maintain its hold on top spot in the Hamilton District Cricket League for the sixth straight week. The teams played with only 25 overs a side to make up for lost time caused by work that had to be done on the field before the game. Saturday's rainfall left puddles in the outfield and on the pitch at Glenashton, but Oakville club members worked more than three hours to carry the water out with small buckets and dry the pitch with towels. Once the contest started, Hamilton batted first. Oakville bowlers Jagjit Singh and Bilal Khanzada limited the first few Hamilton batters to only five runs by the first break, but the next several Hamilton batters put up big numbers, giving the visitors 127 runs scored with only four wickets down. Oakville managed to limit Hamilton to only 17 runs over the next six wickets. Oakville started slowly in its turn at bat, as Ali Kamal Shah and Singh's wickets were lost with only eight runs on the board. But John Kirstein, Vijayan Tirupathi and Dinesh Sharma helped Oakville catch up with some excellent production. Oakville's chances again looked dim after Dinesh Sharma, Saqib Mushtaque and Khanzada were quickly retired, leaving Oakville needing 72 more runs in only eight overs. However, the strong batting of Manik Bhan, Srini Kesavan, Tirupathi and Shabbir Khan allowed Oakville to manage the comeback. Oakville nearly won the game, but Khan was run out by only a few inches to conclude the contest. Oakville hopes to protect its lead for first place this weekend when it visits Hamilton Sunday at Churchill Park. Hinchcliffe bounces back to win Indy stop in Edmonton A week after a disappointing finish in his hometown race, James Hinchcliffe rebounded to win the Edmonton 100 last weekend at the temporary Edmonton Airport Circuit. The 23-year-old Oakville Trafalgar grad led Sunday from start to finish to earn his second victory of the Firestone Indy Lights Series season. Hinchcliffe, who crashed on the final lap of the Indy Lights stop in Toronto the previous weekend to finish 10th, was thrilled to win a race on Canadian soil. "Our team owner, Tom Moore, is from Alberta, so this is as good a home win for him. And, as always, the Canadian fans have been outstanding in supporting the Indy event here and the drivers," he said. "I'm also pretty pleased to have delivered another win and bounce back from last week's disappointment in Toronto. Talk about motivation!" Hinchcliffe held off France's J.K.Vernay -- the series leader -- throughout Sunday's race. The gap between the two front-runners was rarely more than a second. The win also solidified Hinchcliffe's hold on second place in the series standings. He has 280 points on the campaign, 55 behind Vernay and 27 ahead of Great Britain's Martin Plowman. Round 9 of the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights Series sees a return to the U.S. after the back-to-back stops in Canada. The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, in Lexington, Ohio, is the next stop, slated for Aug. 8. Under-21 women downed in Ontario Cup final Oakville Soccer Club's under-21 women's A soccer team fell just short in its attempt to become the first local Ontario Cup champion of 2010. REPSOCCER Oakville reached the final of the Ontario Cup playdowns before dropping a 3-1 decision to the Richmond Hill Raiders Sunday at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan. Ashlee Savona scored Oakville's lone goal of the match, finding the net at the 17-minute mark to tie the game 1-1. Richmond Hill took a 2-1 lead into halftime and then put the game away with another goal in the 83rd minute. The previous day, Oakville defeated the Pickering Power 2-1 in the semifinals. Cara Cutaia and Samantha McLaren scored first-half goals to give Oakville a 2-0 lead at the break. Pickering scored three minutes into the second half but could not net the equalizer. Oakville's U21 women's A team, coached by Peter Uremovich, also defeated the St. Catharines Jets 3-1 and Bolton Wanderers 2-1 during the Ontario Cup playdowns. All those games were contested this month. U21 men eliminated in quarter-finals Oakville's under-21 men's A team was eliminated from its Ontario Cup playdowns the previous weekend with a 2-0 loss to the Woodbridge Strikers in the quarter-final round. Woodbridge went on to win the Ontario Cup. Oakville beat North York ANB Futbol 1-0 in its other Ontario Cup contest. Pair of U18 men's squads reach quarters Two Oakville teams reached the quarter-finals of the under-18 men's Ontario Cup tournament before being eliminated. The local U18 A team, which edged the Thunder Bay Chill 3-2 in its first game of the playdowns, was ousted with a 2-0 loss to the Scarborough Wexford United. Oakville's U18 B team bowed out with a 5-0 loss to the Mississauga Clarkson Comets. The B team had to win three games -- hammering Erin Mills Eagles B 7-0, downing the Brampton Blast 2-1 and routing the Brampton East Chiefs 5-1 -- to reach the quarter-finals.