It was a thrilling weekend in the GMIS JCA league with yet another ton, single-handedly guiding Mavecrics to victory, a 1 wicket thrilling win on the back of a spectacular late-order fightback by Yadavas Chairos Tigers and a comfortable win for Jakarta Barbarians.
The fight for title honors in Division 1 is becoming more and more of a two-horse race between defending champions Wisci Wanderers and Indonesian challengers Yadavas Chairos Tigers. They faced off in an exciting 35 overs contest at the Cibubur cricket ground on Sunday.
WISCI was put in to bat and a Fernando combination accounted for the dangerous Naresh Gupta early. Adam Jones & Suhail Modak batted well to construct a solid platform, but Elvidus Ikun’s triple strike brought shakiness in the platform. WISCI is renowned for its depth and resilience and David Holme played savior again, this time in the company of Vinayak Sasitharan. But the see-sawing of fortunes continued as Fernando Banunaek (Jr) got rid of both of them and a spate of run-outs thereafter meant that WISCI ended at a below-par 144 for 9 in their 35 overs.
WISCI’s strong bowling attack and their experience of being in tough situations would have given them hope to defend the low target. Some indisciplined batting by the big guns of the Tigers top order against the guile of Big Dave gave WISCI just the start they needed with 3 wickets down for just 14 runs. Gema Fajar & Ahmad Ramdoni started re-building albeit at a slow pace. Deepak Singh castled the dangerous Ramdoni and the Tigers were soon in an irretrievable deep hole at 73 for 8.
Elvidus Ikun who can instil fear with his pace while bowling, was fearless as he decided to attack to get his team out of the hole. His 30 of just 18 balls was crucial in the late order revival that followed. The Tigers were still out of it when he became the ninth wicket to fall with 27 runs still needed. The young turks Fernando Banunaek & Edi Artawan then displayed maturity way beyond their years as they ran beautifully in an unbeaten 27 runs stand to give their side an unlikely win.
