And then we're back to normality.
The rescheduled match was played out to completion after yesterday’s abandonment. The game was marked by a slew of international players returning from their test match victory against Pakistan to the more parochial nature of domestic One Day cricket.
Probably the most effective was Wasindu Hasaranga, who was one
of the few players to join straight up with Colombo after that test match. He
spread 6 wickets across those last 3 group games but then got 4 important
wickets for 37 runs today as Tamil Union were all out for 238 – an underwhelming
total.
Colombo did not start the chase brightly with a wicket off
the second ball. They lost wickets regularly from there. They were in the hunt throughout
the early overs but the loss of two quick wickets in the 15th and 16th
overs meant that the asking rate was always drifting away.
Tamil Union, who topped their group, go on to play Sri Lanka Army, who topped
theirs, in the final tomorrow.
It’s very hard to know the state of play with Zimbabwe as a cricketing unit.
Their most recent results saw them have their arses handed
to them by Afghanistan in both ODI and T20s, they then beat all-comers in the Men’s
T20 World Cup Qualifiers…and then come out and trash Bangladesh today…and it
was not even close.
Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat first and then put
on their second highest ever T20 total, 205-3. This only came about due to a
late innings kick that started in the 12th over when there was a
real spike in run scoring led by Wessley Madhevere. The 21-year-old is not a huge name yet but I
genuinely feel he could be a T20 break out star for Zimbabwe in the mould of
Rashid Khan. On current form he is in my Top 10 most impressive Cricketers of
the Year.
In reply Bangladesh only managed 188-6, seeing Zimbabwe win
by 17 runs. The second game is tomorrow with the final on Tuesday.
Today marked the end of the Pondicherry T20 tournament which can be seen as the feeder league to the feeder league of the IPL…. or as a money laundering scheme depending on your viewpoint.
It was a very one-sided tournament that ended in a very
one-sided. Panthers had won 7 games, lost one and had two called off whilst Sharks
had scraped through to the final with an equal amount of wins and losses across
their ten games.
In a tournament where the Panthers had registered the
biggest win in terms of runs (59 vs Tuskers) and in balls remaining (67 vs……also
the Tuskers) their win by 6 wickets with 4 balls remaining looks comparatively tight.
Oh and, by the way, the Tuskers did finish bottom, yes.
The Panthers really put on a team effort throughout the
tournament which can be seen by the fact their dominance does not carry on into
the individual honours. No batters for the Panthers finished in the Top 4
places on the run scoring table. Atop that tree sat the Bulls’ Marinuthu
Vikneshwaran who scored 457 @ 47.7 with a high score of 73.
On the other hand, the Sharks were very reliant on key
batsmen with both of the top two highest individual scores of the tournament
being Sharks batters. Gonnabatulla Chiranjeevi scored the tournament high of 96…and
then scored 5 today, whilst Mohit Mittan scored 83 early in the tournament and
then was the top scorer in today’s match with a meagre 38.
In a fairly disappointing season for the Tigers, 22 year old
Jullian Jacab was a shining light as he got the most wickets – 19 @ 12.73.
Honourable mention also goes to Bulls’ bowler Bharat Sharma who finished 8th
overall with 11 wickets but posted the eye-catching figures of 2.5-0-7-4
against the Panthers.
Only one of the two Semi-finals was completed today as one game was abandoned after 6 overs due to an ‘unsafe pitch’. Despite my best efforts I do not know what this means exactly however it seems rectifiable as they are re-starting the second game there tomorrow. What it does mean is that whoever wins out of Tamil Union and Colombo will have to play the final less than 24 hours later, whilst Sri Lanka Army will be fresh.
For it was Sri Lanka Army who prevailed in the other match,
conquering Ace Capital convincingly thanks to an all-round performance from
Seekkuge Prasanna. First he put on 89 of the 246 runs that the Army made in
their first innings, before returning figures of 4-26 as Ace were all out for
123 after slightly over half of their allocated overs.
Kabul's Ibrahim Zadran continued to put pressure on Pamir’s poor season. After the bottom of the table team posted their highest total of the tournament – 171-3 – their bowlers then failed to put up any pressure. Zadran’s breezy 55 ball 91 was the best example of this as their win takes the up to 3rd on the table and Zadran himself up to the highest run scorer after 5 games. He has bagged 257 runs @ 85.66.
Kabul have moved level on points with Speen Ghar who recorded
a convincing win of their own yesterday. After winning the choice and deciding
to bat first, Speen Ghar put on 197 – the highest total of the tournament.
Hindukush gave it a good go but went too hard too soon and slumped to an embarrassing
all out total of 87. Speen Ghar’s bowler Sharafuddin Asharaf registered the
most impressive looking figures of 3.1-1-7-3. Despite not taking a wicket in
Boost’s game yesterday, Zia-ur-Rehman is still the highest wicket taker.
I have been rather distracted from this tournament by my exclusive
coverage of the Sri Lankan Major Clubs Limited Overs Tournament, but as that
draws to a finale this weekend, we can turn our attention back to Afghanistan.
Boost are clearly the team to beat. Not only are they
undefeated in their first four games but they are also doing it with ball and
bat. Their second game saw them strangle Amo to 96-9 from their 20 overs whilst
in their third game they put 173 against Hindukush before getting them out for
121. Boost also boast the highest run scorer and most prolific wicket taker in
the forms of Hashmatullah Shahidi ( 194 @ 97, HS – 58*) and Zia-ur-Rehman (10w
@6.30 Best figures of 3-9).
Away from the behemoth that is Boost, there have been some
stand out individual performances from other clubs. Second place Speen Ghar
boast the highest individual score of 83*, provided by Najbullah Zadran in
their comprehensive win over new boys Pamir. As of yet there has only been one
fivefer in the competition, courtesy of Amo who gilled his boots against Hindukush
in a tight match that went down to the last ball. It is Amo’s solitary win in
the tournament with only Pamir below them. =
The group stages of the Sri Lankan Major Clubs Limited over Tournament is over and it is now confirmed that Tamil Union will play Colombo on Saturday with the Sri Lankan Army facing off against Ace Capital.
The Sri Lankan Army underlined their credentials as hot favourites
for the trophy as they beat 11th placed Negombo by 5 wickets. They
onled needed 11.5 overs to chase down the 133 set for them by Negombo who have had
a disappointing campaign.
Elsewhere, Nishan Fernando became the third player to have
scored two centuries in the competition as 5th placed Ragama beat
Kandy Customs by 119 runs. Kandy Customs were all out for just 97 as they
chased down the Nishan-guided Ragama total of 216. Despite the mauling, Kandy
Customs will be pleased overall with their position which has seen them finish
two places higher than last time. In contrast, Ragama finished second place
last season but are a long long way off the pace this time out.
Tamil Union finished on top of Group A thanks to a comprehensive
victory over Bloomfield. Navod Paranavithana amazing figures of 2.5-0-8-6 saw
him raze Bloomfield all out for 79. A very easy chase for the table-toppers.
The wheels have really come off Bloomfield as they slump from a 5th
placed finish last year to finish in 9th this time out.
The round robin stage finishes with Burgher’s Duvindu
Tillakaratne as the highest wicket taker with 36 whilst Chilaw Marians’ Kasun
Vidura’s 631 makes him the highest run scorer.
We only have one more round of games before we move into the semi-finals and the final next weekend. Group B is pretty much sewen up with Colombo and the Sri Lankan Army home and hosed. Group A is a little more open, but it is very likely that it will be Ace Capital and Tamil Union who progress.
Sri Lanka Army underlined their dominance with a crushing win
over their airborne cousins. After batting first, the Army got 185 – which seemed
a little below par. However, they shot out the Sri Lankan Air Force for a mere
76.
Sinhalese are still just about in the hunt in Group A but
really left it too late. Despite ending their season with 4 wins in a row they
are unlikely to progress. Today it was Nipun Dananjaya who got 127* to help
them beat Badureliya in their final game of the season.
It was also the last game for Burgher who fail to qualify
despite boasting, in the form of Kasun Vidura, the highest run scorer in the
tournament. He ends on 631 runs. The next highest run scorer who is likely to
progress is the Army’s Lakshan Edirisinghe who is 183 off the pace.
It’s all change in terms of wicket taking records this
round. The best figures of the tournament record has stood for the last fortnight
but Sachithra Senanayaka snatched it away at the end by bagging 8-27 in Sri
Lanka Navy’s win over Panadura. Also, Ashan Priyanjan’s iron grip on boasting
the most wickets in the tournament has slipped at the last as Duvindu
Tillakaratne ended his season with a pair of 3-fers and a four-fer. This takes
him two wickets over the Colombo player – however Priyanjan has at least two
more games to play.
After winning their first game of the tournament last time out, Kalutara Town got absolutely humbled by Ace Capital. After being put it into bat first, Kalutara were all out for, the comically pleasingly but disappointingly lowly, score of 69. Ace polished this off in 13.1 overs to extend their lead in second on Tamil Union. Ace’s Nimasara Atharagalla continued his decent spell of form with figures of 5-27 after getting 4 wickets in his last match.
In terms of other wicket-takers, Prianjan stays top of the
highest wicket takers – but has also remembered how to bat. He has bagged 186
runs in his last 3 games for Colts.
Akshdeep Nath scored the 20th century of the
tournament as his 137 runs helped lift Sebastianites to 285, a score that Lankan
couldn’t get anywhere near despite the fact that rain intervened. Sebastianites
are on a decent run despite winning only 1 of their first 7 games, they have
since won 3 of the last 4 and move into 7th.
Elsewhere, Kasun Vidura continued his reign of terror as he
scored yet another half century to take his total to 612 @ 68 for Chliaw.
Today saw some of the biggest individual performances of the
tournament so far.
First off with the bat, Sahan Kosala attempted to pull off a
last minute rescue mission. Coming in at 49-5, the wicketkeeper batter who
turned 20 yesterday, scored 133 off 106 to drag the Sri Lankan Navy up to
270-7. Despite this heroic effort Negombo managed to pull themselves up to the
total with 2 overs to spare and narrow the gap on the Navy to a single point in
Group B. Kasun Vidura has gone back to his big scoring ways with 86 against
lowly Nugegoda on Saturday and continue his reign as highest run scorer.
Elsewhere, Inshaka Siriwardene registered the third best
bowling figures of the tournament as Kalutara beat Nondescripts by 60 runs. Batting
first, Kalutara put on 178 before Siriwardene’s 6-19 humbled Nondescripts to a
mere 118. The win marks Kalutara’s first victory of the season after 8 straight
losses. Ashan Priyanjan continues is dominance as the most effective bowler
with another 4 wickets over the last two matches.
Honoruable mention goes to Tamil Union for their huge win
over Badureliya on Sunday. After batting first and putting on 280 in their 50
overs, Badureliya were all out for just 82. The 198 run victory was the second
most significant by runs and saw Tamil Union overtake Sinhalese and move into qualification
places in Group B.
After the 3-Day Tournament and the One-Day Tournament comes
the Afghanistan Domestic T20 competition that plays out over the next month.
The largest winners of today’s opening two games were Speen
Ghar who beat Mis Ainak by 8 wickets with 8 balls remaining. Chasing 139, captain
and opener Usman Ghani led from the front with a 54 ball 66. When he fell in
the 17th over, Speen Ghar needed just 11 runs to seal their opening
victory.
In the other fixture Kabul beat Band-e-Amir by 6 wickets
with 34 balls remaining. The bowling of Azmatullah Omarzai was influential; his
3-16 saw BEA all out just 120 on the
board. Kabul needed just 14.1 overs to chase that down.
Scotland were certainly the winners of this round of this competition; winning 3 games with Namibia winning 2 and Nepal with just a solitary win.
Scotland rounded off their competition with a win against Nepal. Hamza Tahir was the hit man as his 4 wickets limited Nepal to 128 in just 35 overs. In the chase, Scotland turned it into a T20 as they chased it down in a ball under 20 overs.
Despite the 6 games, nobody has made any progress in the table.
The action remains in Scotland for the next leg in early August where UAE and America come and play.
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Scotland got their much needed win against Namibia today….but
it did not come easy.
Namibia batted first and put on 215-7 with Gavin Main being
the main thorn in their sides. After impressing earlier in the week with the
bat. Gavin’s main strength came to the fore today as he registered 3-38 including
2 in successive overs.
Scotland did not make their lives easy. Initially they were
3-1 before a spirited second wicket partnership. They then went from 80-2 to
117-6 but had just enough in the tank to edge their way to victory in the
penultimate over.
A win is a win but with much bigger matches around the
corner Scotland are going to need to step it up.
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After stating on Monday how underwhelming Nepal’s batters
have been they showed a clinical display today in chasing down Scotland’s less
than imposing target of 144.
Only one Scottish batter put on more than 20 – and he was
batting at number 9 – which tell you the woeful tale of Scotland’s batting. In
contrast, Aarif Sheikh who is Nepal’s talisman and highest run scorer top-scored
for Nepal in the chase with a score of 71 in 62 ball to help pull off the
upset.
Tomorrow Scotland will seek to bounce back against Namibia.
If this tournament is catching the eye of the national selectors,
it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Ashan Priyanjan could put his
name in the frame for a national call-up. He last turned out in national
colours in 2017 but is tearing up this tournament. He registered his second
6-fer of the tournament today as Colombo beat Negombo by 7 wicket with 157
balls remaining. Priyanjan was the major reason why Negombo were all out for a
mere 132 runs. This takes his tournament total to 25 @ 6.00.
It has been a chaotic week for Negombo. Prior to their big
loss today, they registered an equally impressive win in Sunday’s round of
games. After putting on 242-8 in their 50 overs, they shot down the Sri Lankan
Air Service for a paltry 73. It is the 4th largest margin of victory
in terms of runs in the competition. Notable other results in this tranche of games
are Colts 9 wicket win against Nugegoda where they needed just 19 overs to
chase down 151 and Moors bowling Badureliya for a mere 88.
Away from humiliations, Gitansh Kera got the tournament’s
highest score in Police Sports Clubs 153 run win over Lankan. Gitnash registered
167 runs in 133 balls. The runs were much needed as he came in with his team on
11-2 but his second handed effort saw the Police put on 298. It has been a
tawdry spell of games for the tournament’s highest run scorer, Kasun Vidra, who
has scored 10 runs in the last 2 games. He still manages to hold on to top spot
but has 2 players who have just breached 400 runs who are going to push him
hard unless his form changes.
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Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water,
this old show rolls back in town…and this time the town is Glasgow. Scotland,
who had a great spell in the least leg, are in second place where the visitors,
Namibia and Nepal, are 5th and 6th respectively. They
will be hoping to make some headway on the United States who occupy the last qualification
place.
The opening game between Scotland and Namibia went to form
with Scotland running out convincing winners – however it was today’s game that
looked a little more edgy. Namibia won the toss and elected to bat. They put on
220 despite the ever-impressive Sandeep Lamichhane’s 4-54. Unfortunately the
Nepalese bowlers couldn’t follow through – a trend that has continued
throughout the tournament. There are 2 Nepalese bowlers in the top 10 highest
wicket takers but they have no batters in the Top 25 highest run scorers. They
were all out for 180.
Matches continue through until Sunday when Nepal and Namibi
leave to be replaced by the United States and the UAE – two top 4 teams. That
could be a real test of Scotland’s metal.
Another full round of Sri Lankan domestic cricket was played
out today with a number of eye-catching results.
The most eye-catching game took place at Moratuwa where 6th
placed Ragama absolutely destroyed second to bottom placed Nugegoda – largely thanks
to the tournament’s largest individual total scored by Nishan Madushka. The
ex-Sri Lanka Under 19 player scored 165 of Ragama’s 339-6 before the bowlers
got to work and first strangled Nugegoda before knocking them all out with 8
overs left and a deficit of 156 runs. Madushka’s innings broke the Kasun Vidura
stranglehold at the top of the highest totals; however, he still thunders on in
terms of total runs scored thanks to another half-century today against Panadura.
He now has 446 runs @ 89.20 – 120 more than anyone else.
12 miles up the coast, Sinhalese won a narrow one against
Moors despite having only scored 120 in the first knock. Sinhalese have a lot
to thank Sasika Dilshan for as his figures of 7-2-28-2 were influential in
getting Moors out for just over a hundred runs. It is the tournament’s second
7-fer – and both have been by Sinhalese bowlers.
The tournament’s highest wicket-taker Duvindu Tillakaratne
continued to impress as he got 3-42 in Burgher's victory over Colombo. On only 2 occasions has he failed to get fewer
than three wickets in this competition so far.
There is an anomalous single game tomorrow with the next
large round of fixtures on Sunday
There were two games
in this tournament today that both provided up some interesting performances.
Table-topping Moors won yet another game against Colts. The
margin of victory was rather emphatic as they ran out 123 run victors – the 6th
highest margin of victory. It was largely down to a 96 run haul from Pasindu
Sooriyabandara who scored the 12th highest score of the tournament
and shot up the run scoring table to 4th overall. After putting on
293 in their 50, Moors then went too slow and then too riskily to end up
without any further batters in the hutch with 50 overs left to go.
In the other game, Kandy beat resident whipping boys the Sri
Lankan Navy. When Kandy were all out for 117, the Navy would have thought they
were going to be able to hoist their flag to mark their first win – however they
melted away to a 14 run loss. Ayesh Harshana hit them the hardest with figures
of 4-21.
The most eye-catching fixture in this round of fixtures came
as Sinhalese embarrassed Kalutara. Electing to bat first, Sinhalese put on the
highest team total of the tournament so far with 331 runs scored for the loss
of just 4 batters. Even though the batters clearly excelled, it was a bowler
who produced the most electric performance. Prabath Jayasuriya has had a below
par tournament so far but came out the blocks and got the highest match figures
thus far – 7-17. His prolific wicket taking saw Kalutara all out for 102,
handing Sinhalese a 229 run victory – the largest of the tournament so far.
Elsewhere, Tillakaratne Sampath scored the tournaments’ third
highest total as Burgher beat Chilaw with 8 overs training. A late innings
slump could not derail Burgher as the captain’s 106 run 120 meant they were
well on their way by the time he lost his wicket with 182 on the board. There
has been no change in terms of highest run scorers and highest wicket takers –
however both men didn’t have their greatest matches in the game. Kasun Vidura
added just 17 runs to his total in the Burrgher v Chilaw game whilst Duvindu
Tillakaratne got a solitary wicket.
Games are now drip-fed throughout the next few days, rather
than in these big blocks.
Papua New Guinea’s tour of Singapore was always going to be
a tightly contested affair. There are just 2 Ratings Points (yeah, I don’t know
either) between the two teams who are 20th and 19th respectively
in the T20I rankings. This has been reflected in the results of the two matches
carried out thus far with the series resting at one a piece – despite the
relative dominance of the Singaporean players.
Singapore took the opening game yesterday thanks to Akshay
Puri helping limit PNG to just 150 – 18 runs short of the target. Puri got the
best figures of 3-26 but was ably supported by Vinoth Baskaran who has got a
brace in both games to lead the way in terms of wickets taken.
Today’s game was more of a batter friendly occasion –
evident in the fact that 409 runs were shared between the two sides. Even
though Surendran Chandramohan scored his maiden international century and
Singapore reached their second highest ever T20 score, Papua New Guinea still
managed to chase it down with 2 balls remaining. Oddly enough, the successful chase
also marked Papua New Guinea’s second highest ever T20I score – but was their
highest in a chase. Due to the fact that Chandramohan made a paltry 2 runs in
the first match, it is his teammate Arjun Mutreja who leads out the run scorers
courtesy of 77 yesterday and 36 today.
The series continues on Tuesday, concluding on Wednesday.
The last week has seen all teams play out a further three
games to take their total to 4 over the course of the tournament and yet again
it is the Sri Lankan Army who continue to impress. They are, yet again,
unbeaten thus far in the group stage and have the two largest margins of victory
– they opened the tournament with a 129 run win against Kurunegala and followed
that up with a 176 run win against Nugegoda today.
Equally as dominant on an individual level is Chilaw’s Kasun
Vidura who scored his second century of the tournament on Friday, following up
on his 129 from the opening day. This takes his total up to 356 for the
tournament, 129 more than anyone else.
In terms of bowling success, Ashan Priyanjan got the best
bowling figures of the tournament as he registered 6-30 in Colts’ victory against
the Sri Lankan Navy today. This sees him catapulted to 8th place on
the overall wicket keepers list that is topped by Burgher’s Duvindu
Tillakaratne.
Games continue on Tuesday.
Grace Scrivens was the star of the opening day of the 2022
Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, despite the fact that her Sunrisers team lost
their opening fixture to the South East Stars.
Scrivens started off her day with figures of 10-1-42-4 but was
let down by 3 other bowlers whose figures were rather less flattering. This
bowling profligacy saw the South East get to 281-8; the 12th highest
score in the competition’s history. Scrivens took the bull by the horns and
tried to win the game singlehandedly and blasted a run a ball 74, however was
again let down by her compatriots. There can’t be many times that the same
player has the lowest economy with the ball and the highest strike rate with
the bat. She ends the first round of fixtures as the highest wicket taker and
the highest run scorer.
The South East’s game was the only one that was not effected
by weather as the Western Storm beat Loughborough and the Southern Vipers beat
Central Sparks on DLS.
Believe it or not, this season’s IPL is the ninth iteration of the tournament…and it began with something of a damp squib as Chattogram got...
