Sri Lanka Major Clubs T20 Tournament Update

 Moors are taking this tournament by the scruff of the neck. They registered a huge win over the Sri Lankan Navy today after bowling them out for 81 and chasing it down with 34 balls remaining. Milan Rathnayake registered the startlingly good figures of 6-12, propelling himself to the top of the wicket takers column. Moors are now the only undefeated team left in the tournament and top Group D. 

They also impressed on Thursday when they beat Kurunegala courtesy of a 42 ball 64 from Pabasara Waduge - the fifth highest score of the tournament so far. It is Sinhalese's Shevon Daniel who has the highest total runs though with 168 for the Group A leaders. 

Sri Lanka Major Clubs T20 Update

 Today Tamil Union registered the largest wom of the tournament so far with a 10 wicket win over Kandy. Kandy's score of 94 must be one of the lowest scores for a team batting all 20 overs. Unsurprisingly Tamil Union polished that off with little fuss as Navod Paranavithana seized the bull by the horns to score 50 of the runs. Tamil Union join Sinhalese, Burgher and the Sri Lankan Army as teams that are 2 wins from 2 in the tournament.

The last few cluster of matches have seen a fair few four wicket hauls. The best of which came from Thanuka Dabare whose 4-15  in Ace Capital's win against the Saracens yesterday. This booted Kavindu Nadeeshan's 4-18 on the opening day down to third place. However that plus his 3fer yesterday sees him lead the way in terms of most wickets.

Burgher's Bhanuka Rajapaksa has come back from his helter-skelter IPL stint and registered the tournament's first century on Monday. He only managed 17 today against Nugegoda - however that is enough to see him top the run scoring at this early stage. 

Sri Lanka Major Clubs T20 Tournament

Exciting T20 action abounds as the Sri Lankan Major Clubs T20 Tournament arrived this morning.

The major appears to stand for there are a majorly large amount of teams with 12 featuring today and another 12 starting tomorrow. Lots for us to get our teeth into over the next fortnight with 6 games a day every day up until the knock outs.

The largest margin of victory came for Moors who beat Galle by 67 runs. Moors first innings total of 179 was 33 higher than any other tram managed today and Galle only just reached three figures in their response. They lost wickets in clusters as they went from 29-1 to 33-4 and then lost their final 4 batters for the gain of 11 runs. Thilan Prashan ended the match on figures of 5-15 for a great start to his tournament.

Elsewhere the Sri Lankan Army sunk the Sri Lankan Navy as the sailors managed a mere 109 in their opening 20 overs before Ashan Randika's 65 runs in 41 balls got them there in just 13 overs. 

Uganda Women Tour of Nepal Round Up

 

A very odd women's series came to a close today as Uganda finish their T20 tour of Nepal.

Surprisingly it was Uganda who claimed the series 3-2, however some of the biggest margins of victory came in those two games in which Nepal prevailed.

Jyoti Pandey was the stand out player for Nepal with the bat and she registered the two highest scores of the series. Thr second highest was 47 in Thursday's loss and she finished with 49 today in the most convincing Nepalese victory as they walked out winners by 33 runs.

For victorious Uganda it was Concy Aweko who was the most consistent bowler. She finished with 9 wickets and the tournaments best figures of 3-13 in yesterday's 25 run loss.

Green Afghanistan One Day Cup

 

Inevitably, and quite rightly, Hindukush won the final against Pamir today.

When Pamir put on just 172 in their rain shortened 33 overs it seemed very likely that Hindustan (no strangers to big hitting) would polish it off. Indeed they did, but they lost a great many more wickets than you would have thought. Were it not for 60 runs from opener Ibrahim Zadran in amongst a chaotic start we could have been in for a bit of an upset….but alas no.

Hindukush’s Zia-ur-Rehman ended the tournament with 14 wickets @ 12; 6 more than anybody else whilst Pamir’s Shahidullah’s 271 @ 67.75 was the pick of the batters.

Green Afghanistan One Day Cup

 

Hindukush are by far the strongest team in this tournament and underlined that in the sixth match by beating Pamir. The chasing pack are all equally inconsistent as they have only won a single game each – against each other.

 

Pamir’s Shabir Noori put up a decent fight after Hindukush put on their highest score of the tournament thus far – 298. This fight was fairly single handed though as apart from him and Shaidullah, nobody got over 28. There was quite a leap for Pamir as they went from 36-3 in the 6^th over to 203-4 in the 46^th. However that poor start really stung them at the end.

 

Zia-Ur-Rehman was already the leading wicket taker but has taken 4 more wickets across today’s game and Monday’s win over Maiwand to take his tally to 12 – almost double the amount of second place. Shaidullah’s score of 90 was enough to propel him to the top of the runscorers. He has a princely 75 run jump on second place.

Green Afganistan One Day Cup

 

The Pamir Legends won their first game of the tournament this morning as they out Maiwand to the sword courtesy of the first century of the tournament from Ihsanullah. 

It was a high scoring game with Maiwand posting the highest total of 2022; 306-6. It was no cake walk for Pamir but opener Ihsanullah shepherded them through until the last ten overs where 85 were needed. It got sticky at times but just 7 was needed from the final over and with a six and a single Pamir opened their account. 

Hindukush beat Pamir in the midweek game and top the table.

Ihsanullah's big score puts him 11 runs clear as highest run scorer whilst Hindukush's Zia-ur-Rehman's 8 wickets sees him lead that particular tally. 

Green Afganistan One Day Cup

Hindukush’s debut in this tournament was a strong one.

 

They were put in to bat and put on a decent score of 232 despite the regular fall of wickets. Afghan journeyman Mujeeb Ur Rahman was Maiwand’s biggest hitter with decent figures of 3-27.

Mujeeb was let down by their batters, however, as they were rocked out for a mere 129 after never being able to rally back from 11-4. Not even the rain could help them as their chase was shortened to 40 overs and the total down to 209. They ended up being downed after 32 overs needing 80 runs.   

Zimbabwe A Tour of Nepal

After two very one-sided and brief One Day games, it was pleasing to see this one go the distance.

 

Zimbabwe went out positively and put on 213 runs in their 50. The main reason why this was so limited was due to the regular intervention of debutant Kishore Mahato who got five for 43.

 

Nepal looked more confident from the get go and built substantial partnerships throughout. And needed a mere 30 0vers to do the job.

 

The rise of Nepal is on.    

Tadiwanashe Murumani ended as the highest run scorer- but with 105 runs it suggests the series was not a runfest. Nepal's Basir Ahamad was one of two players to get 3 wickets but leaked just 40 runs in the process. 

Green Afganistan One Day Cup

 Today marks the start of a new 50 Over domestic tournament. Three teams will face off against each other over the next fortnight. 

The inaugural saw Maiwand beat Pamir courtesy of one of Afghanistan's rising talents. Darwish Rasooli top scored with 84 runs in Maiwand's total of 254-9. Pamir fought them hard and with 5 overs left it looked like they might have it in them, but lost 4 wickets in quick succession to finish 10 runs short. 

Maiwand and Hindukush play the second fixture on Tuesday. 

Zimbabwe A Tour of Nepal

 After Nepal's poor showing yesterday, you would have had long odds on an even more convincing win for then today....but that is what we ended up with. 

Zimbabwe A were all out for a miniscule 86 in 31.5 overs. The Nepalese bowlers shared the wickets amongst them but Karan KC managed to bag 3 wickets alongside 3 maidens to catch the eye the most. 

Nepal continued to rub salt into the wound by knocking off the chase within 11 overs. 

It would be a brave person who predicted the outcome of this series. 

Zimbabwe A Tour of Nepal

The T20 leg of the Zimbabwe A series was rather ruined by weather. After Zimbabwe won the first game, rain washed out the second game after 4 overs before Nepal levelled the series very comfortably in the last match. So it is very hard to see who is in the ascendancy as we moved into the 50 Over games……. until the game actually started.

It seems that Nepal were still in T20 mode as they were all out for 136 and still had 20 overs left in the bank. Brad Evans really must be pushing for full international honours soon. The ex-Cardiff MCCU player was top of the wicket takers in the Zimbabwe Regional Men's Twenty20 tournament and has been pulling up roots in the domestic competition all year. Today he got wickets in all of his spells and finished with figures of 8.3-0-27-4. Zimbabwe won at a canter, needing a mere 26 overs to turn the tide.

 

The next game is tomorrow with he final game on Monday.

Zimbabwe A Tour of Nepal

 Whilst one set of Zimbabweans are facing South Africa A, another group are in Nepal for 3 T20s and 3 One Day games. 

The 'Zimbabwe XI' facing South Africa A are pretty much just the Zimbabwe first team with 480 white ball appearances across the team. This tram is clearly their second string with 83 apperances between them - 40 of which comes from just one player. 

It was a relative veteran of 3 ODIs and 11 T20Is who shone in the first match as Tadiwanashe Murumani top scored with 56 in Zimbabwe A's second innings score of 182-4. They chased down the total asked of them with 7 balls to spare. 

The second game is tomorrow with the concluding fixture on Wednesday.