Indonesian cricket comes of age at the Jakarta International 6s tournament
This weekend witnessed one of the proudest moments for Indonesian cricket as Chairos Tigers, an all Indonesian-players cricket team finished runners-up in the highly competitive, 20th Tata Motors Jakarta International 6s cricket tournament held at the Cibubur Cricket Ground over this weekend.
Chairos Tigers lost to the eventual winners, Selular Ryders, a team from Singapore comprising of several current & former Singapore national team players. 6s cricket is the most fast-paced format of cricket and we witnessed a lot of this fast paced action with many close contests including a tied game when more than 100 players from across 10 teams battled it out over 30 games.
After several closely fought games in the knock-out phase of the tournament, the first Cup semi-finals was played between defending champions Asiatic Smashers & Chairos Tigers. The Smashers seemed to be cruising towards a win, chasing a modest total, when a dramatic 4th over by Lucky where he took 2 wickets for just 3 runs, changed the course of the game to give the Tigers a famous win & finals entry.
In the 2nd Cup semi-finals, Jaguar CC took on Selular Ryders. Manpreet Singh’s 31 off just 10 balls helped the Ryders set up a competitive target of 62. Dhimanshu’s 21 meant the Jaguars still had a fighting chance, until Maneesh Tripathi’s 2 wicket over ensured the Ryders won comfortably in the end.
With dark clouds threatening, the finals got under way. Rakshan Rai (26 of 10 balls) & Manpreet (22 of 6 balls) helped Selular Ryders put up a formidable score of 68. This was always going to be tough to chase down, and when, the Tigers prolific batsman, Ramdoni fell on 13, it ended up being an easy win for Selular Ryders & this being their 2nd championship win at the Jakarta 6s. Epic Eagles, powered by Harish Tiwari’s all-round performances ended up being the Plate winners.
Manpreet Singh took the batting awards honors for both the Most 6s & the Best Batting. Yeri Rosongna was awarded the Best Bowler of the tournament. Dhimanshu Raghuwanshi who had played several match-winning acts for his team, won the prestigious Player of the Tournament award.
The Jakarta 6s is an important Social event in the cricketing calendar as more than 100 players descend on to the Cibubur Cricket ground for 2 days of fun, banter & exciting cricket, said Avakash Lohia, the President of the JCA. Sachin Gopalan, who has been instrumental in the development of the Chairos Tigers, was delighted at his team’s performance & very proud of his boys.
