Cricketing action resumed in Jakarta after a short-break in the form of the semifinals games for the JCA T20 competition. WPP India XI & Garuda Gentlemen set up a Cup finals clash after thrashing their opponents in the semifinals. Meanwhile WISCI Wanderers & Mavecrics Menarians also won their semifinals games by huge margins to move into the Plate Finals.
The Indonesian national team, Garudas Gentlemen, had been getting a lot of match practice and competitive action at the SEA games and this held them in good stead as they steam-rolled their opponents Ceylon Cavaliers. The Garudas top order seemed to be in a hurry and in the quest of playing too many shots, they kept losing batsmen at regular intervals. A very mature knock of 60 not out by Ahmad Ramdoni and good partnerships with Suda Arsa & Gede Darma Arta helped the Garudas recover well and once they took 27 runs in the last over, they were well back in control finishing on 160 in their 20 overs.
Ceylon needed Dihan Silva to fire if they had to chase down 160, but they had to contend with a steaming hot, Maxi Koda. The young NTT lad who has built his muscles chopping wood for his family, produced one of the best spells of the season where he claimed 6 wickets for just 11 runs in his 4 overs. His pace had the Ceylon batsmen, ducking & weaving and even had Sabry falling back on the stumps. Once he had finished his 4 overs, the Ceylon chase was all but over and they folded up for just 45 runs giving the Garudas a huge win.
Thanks to Faheem & Suresh for umpiring the game
