Much better weekend for the club with 2 wins and a close loss from our 3 games.
We got started with a 40 over clash against Halifax Titans. Batting first, partnerships of 46 between Danish Khan (19) and Andrew Irving (22), 97 between Antony Roche and Arslan Khan (36), and 53 between Antony and Sagar Mandhan (11) helped us reach 5/213 in the 35th, when Antony was out for a superb 96 off only 64 balls with 2 fours and 9 sixes! The innings fell away a bit in the last few overs and we were all out for 234 in the 40th, still a very good score on a slow outfield.
Our defense of this target got off to the best possible start as Shadab Ahmed immediately found his rhythm with a double wicket maiden first over. He took another one in his next over, and then added a run-out before Sagar struck soon after to have them at 5/11 in the 6th! After Titans moved on to 51, Daksh Talwar then took 2 wickets, notable for the fact that one was with pace and one with his usual leg spin. Shadab then returned to take the last 3 wickets in a hurry, finishing with club record figures of 6/14 off 6.3 overs. We bowled them out in only 20.3 overs for 73, a 161 run win and an early visit to the pub, which was much more pleasant than another 19 overs of fielding would have been on a scorching hot day. This win secures us a place in the 40 over final with one game still to play.
Our Div 3 team batted first in their game against East Coast CC. Once again, nobody was able to post a big score and we only managed 9/104 off our 20 overs. We have made a habit of defending low scores, and Jawad Naimat and Gaganpreet Singh both took an early wicket to give us hope. East Coast looked like they had the game comfortably in the bag as they reached 4/97, but Ahsan Hafeez was thrown the ball and he captured his first wicket in Cannons colours. Kanwaljeet Singh then took 3 in 4 balls the next over, to suddenly leave them 8 down with 4 runs still required, and a miracle win now possible. Alas, it wasn't to be, as their skipper hit a 4 in the next over to take his team to victory. A great fight from our boys, with Kanwaljeet leading the way 4/14 off 3 overs.
Dhruv Mohta's Div 2 lineup rounded off our weekend, losing the toss and fielding first against Avengers. Jaideep Singh removed their dangerous opener first ball of the game, a good catch to Dhruv at mid-off. This would be the first of 5 successive wickets to fall to catches at mid off or mid on, all taken by either Dhruv (3) or Andrew Irving (2). Kanwaljeet was the bowler responsible for 3 of these, a great weekend with the ball for him. Avengers batted well in the back half to advance from 5/47 to 7/124 after 20, but our bowling and fielding standards stayed high throughout despite the heat, ensuring they never got away from us.
Once again, some top order wobbles left us at 3/28 and in need of a partnership. Dhruv (19 off 13) and Sarvana Chandran (20 off 11) put on a rapid 37, but 3 more quick wickets left us at 6/77, 47 still to get, but with 59 balls to do so as a result of the quick scoring to this point. Revant Sharan and Kanwaljeet played sensibly to wipe 26 off the target, and then another 15 was scored before we lost our 8th wicket with 7 still needed. Luckily we had the experience of Tushar Sehgal to navigate this, a couple of well hit fours getting us home with 11 balls to spare. Great job by Revant who given his first significant chance with the bat, took it with both hands and ended with an unbeaten 22 off 26 to win the game for us.
Thanks to all our sponsors for helping us achieve these results in 2022. These weekly recaps are made possible by Steele Hyundai & Genesis Halifax. If you need a new or used vehicle, head into one of their dealerships or visit their website.
