Twenty20 Cup Round 3
Ninjas v Rabid Wolves
Rabid Wolves continued to roll along with their most convincing performance yet, beating Ninjas by a comfortable 34 runs. Ben Read followed the lead of Daniel Speirs and scored the second hundred of the tournament, doing so in quicker time than Speirs and thrilling a packed crowd. Read only hit 2 sixes, but scored 14 fours in his innings of 107 not out. His swift rate of scoring was so outstanding that it allowed Håkon Mørk to tend to his outstanding batting average with a one-day worthy 54 unbeaten from 50 balls. The early Ninjas excitement, sparked by Mohammad Amir's early breakthrough, was foiled comprehensively by a partnership of 151 for the third wicket.
Ninjas never truly got close to the target of 193. Both Rob Bowen (22) and Ash Chaulk (11) struggled to get the new ball away, then the secondary bowlers reaped the rewards of wickets. Kieron Pollard (2-18) and Dave Richards (2-12) shared 4 wickets and kept the pressure on with some tight bowling. Richards even managed to deliver a maiden with his tidy fingerspin. Dylan Cole's fighting innings of 29 came to an end when he lofted the ball to Raghav in the deep, presenting Kev Gough with his first wicket of the tournament. From 85-6 Ninjas recovered to respectability, but even the best efforts of Gareth Gooljar (26) and Adam Hollioake (37) were not nearly enough.
Rabid Wolves innings 192-3 (20 overs)
BS Read 107 (53), H Mørk 54* (50)
MU Amir 1-32 (4)
Ninjas innings 158-8 (20 overs)
AJ Hollioake 37 (24), DH Cole 29 (17), GS Gooljar 26 (14)
DP Richards 2-12 (3)
Rabid Wolves won by 34 runs.
Man of the Match: BS Read
Mathemagicians v Turistas
The sheer determination of Jamee Gray got Mathemagicians off the mark with a win over Turistas. The Mørkambe captain struggled through some early difficulties to dig in and play an outstanding innings of 59 at the top of the order. He was both the anchor and the catalyst of the run chase that saw Mathemagicians cruise home with 6 overs spare.
Adam Collins was again effective at the top of the order, mixing up his bowling enough to keep the Turistas batsmen off balance as they tried tp hit out. His first wicket was Daniel Speirs (4), far short of his heroics of the previous match. Collins was supported well by Manan Shah, who took the wicket of Pete Young for a slow 5. Paddy Gundry played some attacking shots at the top of the order, but Turistas never truly got on top of the bowling. Reddlapalli (31) and Corrin (22) later put on 45 for the sixth wicket, but when Collins returned he stirred trouble once again. The left-armer finished with figures of 3 for 33, and Turistas struggled to 134-9.
The disappointing batting carried over into the field, despite some sharp bowling first up. Thad Bochat was particularly testing and he beat Gray thrice in his first over. When he finally found the edge, Gundry could not hang on in the gully. Gray pushed past such problems with help from sloppy fielding, and Mathemagicians romped into the driving seat in quick time. Andrew Garven then teed off for a quick finish, clubbing clubmate (baddabing) Gundry for consecutive sixes over midwicket.
Turistas innings 134-9 (20 overs)
PG Gundry 39 (30), M Reddlapalli 31 (20), M Corrin 22 (27)
NS Pickup 4-19 (4), AAA Collins 3-33 (4)
Mathemagicians innings 139-4 (14 overs)
JR Gray 59 (34), ST Jayasuriya 31 (20), AJ Garven 16* (5)
XPA Rose 1-18 (3)
Mathemagicians won by 6 wickets.
Man of the Match: JR Gray
****atoos v Masters XI
****atoos piled up an enormous score against Masters XI and achieved a handy second win by 74 runs. The record total of 220-7 was spearheaded by 63 from David Kearsley. The CW Red batsman continued his excellent run of form by performing another rescue operation of sorts. His partner in runs, Zander de Bruyn suffered a rare failure at 75-5, and Saqlain Mushtaq was threatening to turn the game decisively in favour of the Masters. But Kearsley was up for the fight and found similar spirit in the person of Thamba Mamesh. Mamesh contributed 7 fours in his 55 (31 balls) and Kearsley hit 4 fours and 4 sixes in his entertaining display. Together they added 112 for the sixth wicket and carried the game into the 17th over of the innings.
Chris Raftery hit a solitary six in his quick contribution of 15, then overseas pro Andy Bichel celebrated his first CW Cup cap with a four and a six in his 2-ball stay. The record total - the highest in the tournament to date - looked truly imposing against a questionable Masters XI batting lineup. Those questions were amplified immediately when in-form Lance Klusener was run out for 8, having hit 2 boundaries from the first 2 balls of the innings. The top order proceeded to crumble against the variety of ****atoos seamers. Samit Patel (30) and Brian Lara (36) briefly fought back, albeit without much aggression, and the innings played out with very little competition. Bichel wrapped up his Man of the Match award with 3 wickets in his bowling spell, possibly ending the Twenty20 career of Heath Davis.
****atoos innings 220-7 (20 overs)
DA Kearsley 63 (37), T Mamesh 55 (31), JA Robertson 34 (19)
Saqlain Mushtaq 3-39 (4)
Masters XI innings 146-9 (20 overs)
BC Lara 36 (39), SR Patel 30 (26), TM Odoyo 22 (14)
AJ Bichel 3-26 (3)
****atoos won by 74 runs.
Man of the Match: AJ Bichel
Upper Body v Dazzlers
Darren Murphy finally clicked for Upper Body and attempted to justify all the praise he received by captain Nath Patrick before the Twenty20 Cup. With his team chasing 162, Murphy unfurled a variety ungainly slogs and swipes and rode his luck on the way to 91 not out. In his 48 ball stay Murphy middled the ball just thrice by Michael Holding's count, and an anonymous team mate later suggested that he played just one proper shot- a first ball forward defensive. Kingsley Clapham (2-33) and Gee Sriram (1-16) troubled the top order batting, but Murphy disregarded any suggestions of bother and tried to blast the ball to all parts. The most unfortunate bowler to suffer at his hands was Chris Schofield, who had him dropped twice in the space of 4 deliveries by James Stedman in the covers. The second fiddle was played by Jay Gonzalez, rotating the strike as well as needed and hitting only 3 boundaries in 42 not out. Entering the final over the scores were level. Murphy finished the game with a dirty slog over midwicket.
The Dazzlers batting revolved around Zac Gelman. The respected allrounder was just the man for a crisis and almost single-handedly lifted Dazzlers from 118-9 to 161 all out. Amazingly, in a partnership of 43 runs from 20 balls for the last wicket, Sriram faced only 6 balls. Gelman was superb in shielding his lesser partner from the strike, and in turn he struck the ball with fury. Twice Gelman cleared the ropes, charging down the track against Nath Patrick, and then he played a reverse paddle sweep to third man for four. From the humble beginnings of 17 from 15 balls, he raced to 50 from 22 balls and finished unbeaten on 68 from 29. The brilliant batting distracted from the celebration of Andy Maina, a bowling star again with his clever medium pace. Maina continued to create a T20 niche with fine figures of 4-14. Also at the forefront was the accurate Rhys Williams, who too 2 more wickets.
Dazzlers innings 161 ao (19.3 overs)
ZE Gelman 68* (29), S Young 26 (26)
AEK Maina 4-14 (3)
Upper Body innings 167-4 (19.2 overs)
DBM Murphy 91* (48), JP Gonzalez 42* (40)
KR Clapham 2-33 (4)
Upper Body won by 6 wickets.
Man of the Match: DBM Murphy