Friday
Division 2 vs Scotia Strikers CC - Strikers elected to bat, and came up against a Cannons bowling unit at the top of their game. With high scores being the norm in recent weeks due to the fast outfield and warm weather, our entire attack did a great job taking regular wickets and keeping the scoring down. Revant Sharan dominated the powerplay and also the crucial last over to finish with 2/13 off 4. Kevin Tuvar came on during the last 6 overs and his leg spin could not be hit consistently, as he claimed 3/17 off 4. Fellow leggie Nihar Shah had earlier taken 2/28 off 4, while Hiren Patel was his normal miserly self conceding only 14 from his 4. Strikers 8/123 after 20.
The chase started poorly, a lack of sufficient intent reducing us to 5/47 after 8.5. Dhruv Mohta played his best innings of the season, scoring 36 off 28 and combining for a crucial partnership of 34 with Saravana Kumar Chandran (15 off 10). As they both fell, we were still left with 28 to get from 33 balls with only 3 wickets in hand. Hiren showed the right mix of attack and defence to end with an unbeaten 16 off 14 balls, and with the help of Kevin take us over the line with 2 wickets and 10 balls to spare for a 3rd successive win. Scorecard
Saturday
Division 3 vs East Coast CC - An afternoon of leather chasing was in store for our Div 3 team, as ECCC piled up 6/209 off their 20. Palani Elumalai (2/36) and Anburasu Vijayan (2/42) were our main wicket takers.
Amjad Raza showed his capabilities for the first time, smashing 41 off 18 balls at the top of the order to give us some momentum. When he was our 3rd out at the end of the 5th over, we needed to simultaneously consolidate and keep the scoring rate up, and Mehak Babbar and Ashan Hafeez (24 off 18) managed this expertly combining for 62 in 7 overs. Mehak really took charge from here, dominating the next partnership of 60 off 28 balls with Raj Suhagiya (17 off 14). 34 needed from 19. The fall of Mehak shortly after for 74 off 49, his maiden Cannons fifty, saw our hopes dashed as we ended up falling 9 runs short at 9/200. By far our largest ever Div 3 score. Scorecard
Division 4 vs Hfx-Titans CC - Grant Whitcombe continued his fine recent form, combining for partnerships of 37 for the 1st, 59 for the 2nd and 54 for the 4th wickets as the lineup pushed towards a large score. Entering the 19th over on 89, Grant was in sight for a ton but unluckily middled one to the long off fielder inches inside the boundary to fall short at 89 off 62. We lost a flurry of wickets at the end, but the good early work ensured we ended up at a big score of 7/180, also a club record for Div 4 only hours after Div 3 managed the same feat.
Opening bowlers Junaid Hussein (2/27 off 4) and Tanmay Rajput (2/30 off 4) both struck early to have Titans on the back foot in their chase. Ashwin Srinivasan 1/31 off 4), Abdullah Khan 1/24 off 4) and Jayachandran Perumalsamy (1/24 off 4) continued on with fine spells of their own, and we ended up with a comfortable 42 run win where we were strong in all facets of the game. Scorecard
Sunday
Division 1 vs NS Avengers CC - Fenil Patel got us off to a lightning start taking 20 from the first over on the way to 35 off 14 balls. Daksh Talwar and Zeeshan Ansari both contributed quick 21s in the middle to keep things moving, before Karanbir Singh smacked 61 from 31 balls in the back end of the innings to lift us to 8/186 off 20. Karan's first 50 for the club, and it came at a crucial time.
Our pace bowling trio of Ajay Kumar (2/31 off 4), Shadab Ahmed 2/34 off 4) and Arif Hussen (1/15 off 3) were at the top of their game, as we reduced Avengers to 8/59 in the 11h over, a massive win looking likely. It would be 68 runs before our 9th wicket, as Ajay cleaned up their top scorer, but the game was still well an truly in our grasp. Zee wrapped it up next over taking our final wicket, ensuring a 52 run win and solidifying our spot in the top 3. Scorecard
Division 2 vs NS Avengers CC - Sent in to bat, Nisarg Patel (42 off 28) was back at his best as he dominated a 47 run opening stand with Priyank Shah. 3 quick wickets forced a rebuild, and contributions from Priyank Trivedi (25 off 20), Dhruv Mohta (20 off 12) and Hiren Patel (28 off 17) guided us to 158. The regular loss of wickets prevented us from scoring the 180+ that we would have liked, but still runs to defend.
For the first time all season, an opposition top order got on top of our bowlers as Avengers had raced to 74 off only 4.4 before their dangerman was removed for 61 off 18. Revant struck twice in two balls, and another wicket to Tommy Upton saw Avengers 5 down with 64 still needed. We couldn't find another breakthrough from here, Avengers punishing anything remotely loose to race to the target with 29 balls to spare and break our 3 game winning streak. Scorecard
Top Performers
- Grant Whitcombe 89 off 62 (Div 4)
- Mehak Babbar 74 off 49 (Div 3)
- Karanbir Singh 61 off 30 (Div 1)
- Nisarg Patel 42 off 28 (Div 2)
- Amjad Raza 41 off 18 (Div 3)
- Dhruv Mohta 36 off 28 (Div 2)
- Fenil Patel 35 off 14 (Div 1)
- Kevin Tuvar 3/17 off 3 (Div 2)
Milestones Reached
- Nisarg Patel 1,000 runs
- Kevin Tuvar 50 games
- Priyank Shah 50 games
- Mehak Babbar & Rajeshkumar Suhagiya - Highest Div 3 5th wicket partnership (60)
- Grant Whitcombe & Ashwin Srinivasan - Highest Div 4 2nd wicket partnership (59)
- Grant Whitcombe & Kazi Rahman- Highest Div 4 4th wicket partnership (54)