The relaxation of the PPKM restrictions allowed for resumption of the R.P. Singh memorial T-20 tournament with Senayan India XI taking on RB United in the first game played on 7th November at the lush Cibubur cricket ground.
RB United won the toss and chose to bat first but couldn’t force the pace as David Surjit bowled tight line & lengths and accounted for the prolific Gaurav Sharma. Jon Baker, looked in good touch on his return to Jakarta cricket and his skipper Josh was super-prompt to claim credit for Jon’s new-found eye-hand coordination. Prashant Singh making his JCA debut fell in the last over before drinks as RB United built a reasonably comfortable platform of 51 for 2 after 10 overs.
A boundary per over kept coming despite the loss of wickets as RB United reached 100 with 4 more overs left and plenty of wickets in the hut. However, Gaurav Tandon, promoted for his pinch-hitting reputation, found that the off-side had suddenly ceased to cooperate with him as ball after ball kept passing his increasingly flustered bat-swings. The series of dot balls meant that RB United could only muster 14 runs in the last 4 overs finishing at a much below par 114 for 9 wickets in their 20 overs
Amar Kapadia & Malik Arslan batted cautiously to reach 29 at the end of 5 overs and exploded with 21 runs in the 6th over to be comfortable above the asking rate. Skipper Josh then ensured that all RB players could return home early as Farid Ahmad took to him resulting in a 31 run over. Despite a double-wicket over by Gaurav Tandon, Amar Kapadia took his side home for a huge 7 wicket win
