Abu Dhabi T10 Update

 The sixth season of the Abu Dhabi T10 begins on Wednesday at the Zayed Cricket Stadium kicked off with Bangla beating new team New York courtesy of 58 from 22 from competition veteran Evin Lewis. Bangla got to 131 and New York could only manage 112 in response.

 

In the second game, Deccan had the beating of Abu Dhabi who fell to a 35 run defeat in their season opener. The Abu Dhabi franchise’s batting looked in stark contrast to Deccan whose captain, Nicholas Pooran, led from the front with a 33 ball 77 to take their total to 134. Abu Dhabi started well but lost too many wickets to prove effective.

 

With the addition of New York and Morrisville, the number of teams has increased to eight for this year's event.

 

There will be 33 games scheduled in Abu Dhabi over the next 12 days, with each side playing the other once. The top two teams will compete in a qualifier, and the victor will advance to the final on December 4 on Sunday. In a virtual semifinal, the winner of the game between the teams in third and fourth position and the loser of the Qualifier will choose who advances to the final.

Sri Lanakan Major League Tournament Update

 Another red ball domestic final brought to an ignominious end by the first innings lead rule.

 

After Tamil Union put on an absurd 558 in their first innings, Colombo exceeded that with 669 to win the trophy. Sadeera Samawickrama will feel aggrieved to have scored 231 runs in two innings (188 & 43) and still end up on the losing side. He did however propel himself up to third place on the run scoring table.

 

The best players of the tournament ended up being Ragama’s Nishan Madushka who got 138 runs more than anybody else in the tournament despite playing 2 fewer games whilst Sinhalese's Prabath Jayasuriya pipped Sri Lanka Army's Kamal Nanayakkara to be highest wicket taker with 67 wickets @ 20.85.

 

Notable moments in the competition were Nishan Maduskha’s score of 300 for Ragama against Sebastianites in August whilst old favourite Malinda Pushpakumara registered the tournament’s highest of 8-27 for Colombo against Lankan at the start of September. 

WBBL Round Up

 

For so so so long the WBBL has been quite stagnant on a lot of fronts – however it has been all change over the last week or so.

 

Perth’s Beth Mooney  has knocked Georgia Redmayne off the top of the run scoring log courtesy of a mammoth haul of 165 runs in 48 hours. Another record that was toppled this week was the highest individual score of the tournament, with Alyssa Healy breaking the three figure mark with her 64 ball 107* in Sydney Sixers game against Perth – the same game where Mooney scored 75 runs herself.

 

On the same day as that batter friendly game in Melbourne, Sasha Mohoney got 4-15 in the Melbourne derby. This represents the 4^th best bowling figures of the tournament to date. Overall Brisbane’s Nicola Hancock has bagged 11wickets in her last 4 games to supplant Jess Jonassen – who has slipped down to third place.

 

It is also worth noting that Melbourne Renegades have continued their absolutely abysmal season with a complete drubbing on Saturday. They were all out for 88 chasing 192-4. Another dark moment in their poor season – one of the worst I can remember in franchise cricket. 

Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-Day Final Write Up

 Andrew Strauss are you watching?!

 

The final of the Ahmed Shah Abdali 4-Day Trophy turned into a turgid event after Amo, the lesser favoured team were invited to bat first and then went about gaining runs at a slow pace to gain the first innings lead that they needed to win the title. In the end, 395 did not seem a mammoth total but it was enough when they got BEAR – who had been so impressive in the league stages – out for just 278. Mohammad Shahzad was the man of the match for scoring 113 and 101 before having to retire hurt.

 

The tournament’s best player Karim Janat did not go out on a bang. After 6 successive 50+ scores he scored a mere 15 this time out but chipped in with 4 wickets. He still finishes with 164 more runs than anyone else in the tournament. Amir Hamza, the tournament’s stand out bowler got a further 6 wickets in the final and ends on 30 @ 12.46. Despite these two players being Band-e-Amir representatives, it was their team that ended up with the silver medals today. 

WBBL Mini Round Up

 

Yet again, I have been provoked into doing a WBBL update by a huge victory.

Melbourne Renegades got their second victory out of 8 last time out and may have thought their season might have turned…however this was quickly put paid to by the fact that they were all out for 80 against 5^th placed Hobart today. This was largely courtesy of a Molly Strano 4-16 haul. It took Hobart just 10.4 overs to haul in that minimal total.

 

Overall, Jess Jonassen keeps bagging three-fers for fun and leads the way in the wickets column with 17 at an average of 14.31 whilst Georgia Redmayne continues to be the tournament’s highest run scorer with 305.

One thing that has changed is the highest individual score of the season as Beth Mooney got 99* off 58 balls in a shock Peth victory over league leaders Sydney Sixers.

 

Unbelievably there are still 21 more fixtures left before we get to the knock outs. 

Zimbabwe's Pro 50 Tournament Round Up

 Today was the final of this competition. The last time we touched base on it – and in that time, through a confluence of events, Mid West Rhinos, who were second to bottom, managed to rise to the top of the table. They found themselves thrust into the final against the Mountaineers today. 70 from Mountaineers’ Definate Mawadzi took them to 277-7. In reply, the Rhinos looked in real bother at 209-7 but took it down to needing just 12 runs in the last over and 2 off the final ball – however they fell short with a dot off that last ball.

The two excellent players of the tournament were Tadiwanashe Marumani and Brandon Mavuta. Marumani got 428 runs for Mashonaland at an average of 47.55. Interestingly Mashonaland boasted 6 of the top 10 overall highest individual scores in the tournament despite the fact they ended up losing the same amount of games they won. Their season is characterised by the fact that the tournament’s highest individual score was 155* by Mashonaland’s Chiamu Chibhabha…in a game that they went on to lose.

 

Mid West's Brandon Mavuta led the way from the off in terms of wickets and ended with 28 @ 13.39 – 10 more than anyone else. His tournament best figures of 7-41 against Mashonaland a fortnight ago did no harm to these impressive numbers.

 

Domestically, eyes will now turn to the Logan Cup which starts on the 22^nd.

 

Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-Day Tournament

 The final of this tournament plays starts in Sunday – and Band-e-Amir are clear favourites having won all 4 of their games. They are up against an Amo side that won 2 and lost the other 2 – however they have proven that they can win big.

Both of Amo’s victories were 2 of the largest victories of the tournament.; a 226 run win against Speen Ghar and an innings and 132 run win against Mis Ainak. They also boast the bowler with the best figures in an innings in the form of Shafiqullah Ghafari who got the tournament’s only 7fer.

As you can imagine for a team as successful as BEAR have been they have both the highest run scorer and the bowler with the most wickets. Karim Janat has 546 run at 182 and Amir Hamza has 24 wickets at 10.66. They will play big parts in the showpiece final.

The stand out achievement from the non-qualified teams comes from Speen Ghar’s Bahir Shah who got the tournament’s highest individual score of 182 against Mis Ainak.

Boost had a largely anonymous season and only won their final game this week.