This past weekend was a big one in the Halifax cricket calendar with the playing of the annual Deonarine Cup, a round robin tournament between the 4 clubs, and one that we are very keen to add to our trophy cabinet.
We got started on Saturday morning against defending champs East Coast CC. Batting first, Daksh Talwar (50 off 33) and Antony Roche (42 off 37) got us off to a great start, and Zeeshan Ansari finished well with an unbeaten 22 off 13 balls. We didn't quite get the boost in the last 6-7 overs that we would have liked and had to settle for 7/144 off 20.
Shadab Ahmed (2/19 off 4) made this total look very good by clean bowling their opener first ball and then running out their one down next ball in an amazing first over. Anton Kruger (2/20 off 4) and Sagar Mandhan then struck through the middle, to have us in a good position. Unfortunately, missed chances and good hitting from their bats brought the equation down to 5 runs to win off the last over, with Anton taking the ball. He delivered an amazing over, taking a wicket first ball and then keeping them to dots and ones, to the point they needed 2 off the last ball. Again he delivered and Some good work in the field ensured their bat was run out well short of the crease on what would have been the winning 2nd run, resulting in a rare tie. Scorecard
We had to back up immediately after to play NS Avengers CC. After riding the highs and lows of the prior game, we were flat with the bat and couldn't overcome the loss of early wickets, only another great closing knock from Zee (34* off 24) getting us to anything resembling defendable, all out 100 in the last. Shadab (2/9 off 3.1) was again great with the ball early, striking twice, followed by Daksh and Priyank Trivedi taking two each. All of a sudden, they were 7/84 and we were in with a real chance, but in the end we didn't have enough on the board and they passed us with 3 wickets and 11 balls to spare. Scorecard
This meant our chances of winning the Cup were over, but we were determined to bounce back well on Sunday against Hfx-Titans CC. Bowling first this time, everyone bowled well with Priyank (3/9 off 2) again cleaning up the lower order after Daksh (2/29 off 4) and Sagar (1/14 off 3) had taken out the top order. Revant Sharan also claimed his first wicket in the top division during a good spell. A great team bowling effort backed up with good catching restricted them to 117 all out in the 20th.
The chase started off on the wrong foot losing wickets of both of the first 2 balls, and another with the score on 24. Daksh and Anton (27) steadied the ship putting on 63 for the 4th wicket, and then Daksh exploded past 50, finishing the game in a floury of sixes to end up with an unbeaten 72 off 42 balls (7 sixes) to wrap up a 6 wicket win with 25 balls to spare. Scorecard
This win put us in 2nd spot. Turning that tie into a win against East Coast would have had both teams level, but it was not to be. East Coast ended on top with 2 wins and a tie, ahead of us with one win and a tie and Titans and Avengers with one win each.
Shoutouts to Daksh who ended up as the top runscorer in the tournament with 122 runs at 61.00 and a 156.41 S/R, and Priyank who was 2nd in the wickets list with 5 at an unbelievable average of 3.80 and economy rate of 4.75
