Everything looks set for the finals of the inaugural edition of the Indonesian Cricket League with Ceria Komodos taking on Yadavas Chairos Tigers on 23rdSeptember at the picturesque Cibubur cricket ground.
Yadavas Chairos Tigers earned their finals spot by comfortably beating Daehan Super Kings in the semi-finals that was played this Sunday. The Tigers wanted to capitalize on the depth in their batting line-up and hence, decided to take first strike after winning the toss. Bernardus Eli, Kalimantan’s star coach & cricketer played the anchor role to perfection and he found able partners in Subhash & Gamantika as the Tigers built up a good platform.Â
The final acceleration once again came from Ahmad Ramdoni, who has reveled in that role for the Tigers in this tournament with a strike rate of above 150. Karthigai Deepan & Kirubasankar were DSK’s best bowlers for the day but it was now upto their batsmen as they had to chase down 161 for a win.
The second over in the chase went for 13 runs and DSK seemed on course until their star batsman, Kirubasankar was run-out and brakes were applied to the scoring by a thrifty Kisawa. Santosh Kumar & Vimal Nair got together to put on a 50 run partnership, but the asking rate had climbed to 11 per over. The burly Budiarta broke through the partnership and the remaining bowlers feasted on the spoils as the DSK chase petered out, falling 39 runs short in the end.
“The ICL was conceived with the idea of providing a platform for the best of cricketing talent across the vast archipelago and it is quite apt that players from Kalimantan & Bali were Men of the match in the semi-finalsâ€, said a jubilant Abhiram Singh Yadav, the brains behind the inception of the ICL.
“It was a delight to see how players from across various teams got together in a great show of camaraderieâ€, said Dhiraj Nagpal, the treasurer of the Jakarta Cricket Association and a key architect of the ICL.
