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The group stages of the CWC3 have come to an end! Comprehensive wins for the Astronauts and table-toppers Dynamo Morpork, narrower wins for 6th placed ataraXIa and 7th placed Winton CC, and two cracking games for FHK and ZCC.
After electing to bat first at home, FHK were bowled out for just 133. 16 year old Tam Tak Chi stood firm against an inspired Orangutans bowling performance, scoring 61 - the remaining 10 scored only 63. Most of that 63 came from Ivan Lam, who hit 37, and then took two early wickets in the chase! Shum and Wong struck early in their spells too, and after 10 overs TMO were struggling at 27/4. On what was clearly a very difficult wicket to bat on, Alonso Kock played a wonderful innings of 45, but was 6th man dismissed with just 77 on the board. 57 runs from the final 4 wickets was not impossible, but was perhaps a mountain too high to climb. The TMO lower battled hard against a relentless attack, but fell 16 runs short - so nearly one of the upsets of the season!
And over at the 5DNOL stadium, Jura CC elected to bat first on a fairly tricky deck. Nemil Palathingal held the batting together with a good 53, and keeper's Het Nikesh's 36* off just 26 lifted them to exactly 200 after 40 overs. Arguably above par.
ZCC would need something special to chase it, but instead started in dreadful fashion. A soft dismissal for Simons (15), a poor shot from skipper Ahsan (0), and then a direct hit from Brooks to see off Ghani (0), all in the space of just 13 balls! Abdul Younis hit a boundary but then a false shot directly after, and ZCC were 44/4 after 13. Halliday (60) and Madani (65) put on an excellent 105-run partnership under pressure to turn the momentum. Following Halliday's dismissal, Madani then added 33 with Chester (19). ZCC needed only 19 more with 5 wickets and 5 overs in hand. But there was one final twist - a sharp stumping from Nikesh, then a great catch by Zikhungwini. Both set batters gone with just 13 needed in 18. JCC swarmed in, the tail buckled. Ramalingam was last man in and had to get 6 runs in 3 balls. He missed the first two, and they could only run 2 off the final ball. A 3-run win away from home, and 3rd place in the points table secured for Jura CC!
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