Teams that showed a lot of mental resolve & good team-work prevailed in this weekend’s games in the Texmoda JCA league.
Ceylon CC’s batting woes continued as some tight bowling from Agi Saptiazi, helped Rizky Nugraha benefit with wickets at the other end and soon half the Ceylon batting were back, cooling off in the shade of the Cibubur Pavilion. It needed yet another fantastic knock from Rajeev Kumar, who in partnership with Kesavadas, put on more than 70 runs for the 9th wicket to give Ceylon a fighting total. However, the young Indonesian duo of Aditya Haryanto & Repan Desnika showed a lot of gumption to put on 98 runs for the 2nd wicket and guide their side, Yadavas Chairos Tigers to a comfortable 6 wicket win with 12 overs to spare.
The senior Yadavas side took on Menara CC in what they would have expected to be a relatively easy game. However, Menara CC were not going to give without a fight. Their openers Ishaq Khan & Deepak Khullar started things off well, but the introduction of Manbhir Singh & Lucky Kusuma, sparked of a collapse and yet another low total loomed. However, in what was to be a weekend of late-order fightbacks, Prakash Kewlani & Amit Bhat got together to put on 70 runs and take Menara to a good score of 164 in 35 overs.
When Faheem Butt, got rid of both Viraj Bhammar & Manbhir Singh cheaply, Menara CC was right in the game and two further wickets, including one to Deepak Khullar, kept them with a good chance of their first win. Gamantika, who has been showing a lot more application recently, then partnered beautifully with Raj Kapadia to resurrect the Senayan innings and when he has bowled by Vipul, Lucky Kusuma, then took on the mantle of batting sensibly to take his team home with 4 wickets and 5 overs in hand.
WPP India XI self-destructed in the last couple of overs of the game to hand Metro Indians a last ball win in their T20 game. Electing to bat first, Kirubasankar, once again anchored the Metro innings with some help from Dhanasekar. But, WPP India XI fought back really well through Anish Param & Gaurang Kapadia. However some frantic hitting by Sakthi & Murali with help from plenty of dropped catches saw 30 runs come from last 3 overs and lead Metro to a reasonable score. The tall Rakhitha started well by accounting for Pallav, but Naidu & Anish Param played very well to give WPP India XI a good start and they were cruising to a comfortable win. With 12 needed of the last two overs, some careless batting ensued, gifting Dhanasekar with 3 wickets in the 19th over and needing 8 off the last over, Sakthi bowled tightly to help Metro steal an unlikely win.
Ben Burgess ended his very successful season in style with a classy 94 not out and his knock with some help from Jon Baker took Jakarta Barbarians to a good score of 151 in their 20 overs. In reply, Bilal Qureshi & Riaz Hyder started things off superbly with a 97 run opening stand and Jaguar CC seemed to be cruising to a win. Mohib Hussaini struck with 4 wickets and Ben Burgess squeezed out the other end to ensure Jaguar CC could only manage 129 runs in their 20 overs, short by 22 runs.
