Friday
40 Overs vs East Coast CC - Batting first, Arslan Khan (50) and Andrew Irving (26) combined for a 73 run opening stand to set our innings up. Antony Roche (56) and Rudesh Audikesavalu (38) continued to build the innings with an 84 run 3rd wicket stand, before a quickfire 29 not out from 16 balls from Ajay Kumar took us up to 6/224 off our 40.
Shadab Ahmed (2/23 off 6) took two wickets in his opening spell. Sagar Mandhan (1/19 off 6) claimed a big wicket with his first ball and then Hiren Patel (2/24 off 5) bowled their opener on the last ball before drinks to leave them 4/65 after 13. Hiren struck again shortly after the break, followed by skipper Zeeshan Ansari accepting a return catch. Tommy Upton, in his first game for our top team, then claimed 2 big scalps in a great spell of fast and accurate bowling to reduce ECCC to 8/111. Their number 9 then started swinging with nothing to lose, but a second wicket to Zee with the score at 150 kept the game still safely in our hands. 52 further runs would be added as they got to within 22 runs of our score, before Zee finally sealed things in the 38th over as he finished with 3/27 off 6.4. A big win which gives us a great chance to make the final again. Scorecard
Saturday
Division 4 vs NS Avengers CC - Our Div 4 boys had the early 8am game at Don Bayers, and may have wished they stayed in bed as Avengers piled on the runs to finish with 5/176 off 20. They were assisted by the 39 extras our bowlers conceded. Abdullah Khan was the pick of our bowlers with 1/28 off 4.
Our batting lineup put in a much improved effort after our 34 all out in the last game, with skipper Ashwin Srinivasan (33 off 35) almost exceeding this on his own. Most of the remaining order chipped in with 5-10 runs each, but 9/127 off our 20 was as high as we could reach to fall 49 runs short. An improved effort, but reducing extras and finding a way to bat in partnerships is key to getting our next win. Scorecard
Division 2 vs NS Avengers CC - Our bowlers did a great job vindicating the call to send them in, with Revant Sharan (2/10 off 3) striking in the 1st and 5th overs, both excellent catches from Priyank Shah and Tommy Upton respectively. Hiren Patel came on for the last powerplay over and struck 2nd ball, on his way to great figures of 3/20 off 4. Jawad Naimat bowled his best spell of the year picking up a wicket and conceding only 15 from his 3 overs, while Nihar Shah took 2 big wickets finishing with 2/18 off his 4. Avengers managing only 9/107 off their 20.
We lost a wicket with the score on 15, but Priyank Shah (52 off 56) and Rudy (34* off 41) put on 90 to bat Avengers out of the game. The highest Div 2 partnership for any wicket for the Cannons. Priyank would be dismissed with 3 runs to get, but his knock ensured our 2nd successive 8 wicket win, this one with 13 balls to spare. Scorecard
Division 1 vs East Coast CC - East Coast started strong with the bat reaching 1/54 after the powerplay. From this point, our bowlers did well to keep them to 9/152 off 20, with Ajay the pick of the bowlers with 2/22 off 4, and Jarnail Singh (2/24 off 3) picking up two of his own. Zee was again miserly conceding only 18 runs from his 4 overs with 1 wicket.
30 off 21 for Fenil Patel, and 40 off 26 for Antony, kept us on track in the chase, to a point where we only needed 38 off 31 with 6 wickets in hand. We couldn't get the job done from here unfortunately, falling 10 runs short as the absence of multiple regulars hurt the depth in our batting lineup. Scorecard
Top Performers
- Antony Roche 56 off 55 (40 Overs) and 40 off 26 (Div 1)
- Priyank Shah 52 off 56 (Div 2)
- Arslan Khan 50 off 57 (40 Overs)
- Rudesh Audikesavalu 38 off 50 (40 Overs) and 34* off 41 (Div 2)
- Ashwin Srinivasan 33 off 35 (Div 4)
- Fenil Patel 30 off 21 (Div 1)
- Hiren Patel 3/20 off 4 (Div 2)
- Zeeshan Ansari 3/27 off 6.4 (40 Overs)
Milestones Reached
- Hiren Patel 100 wickets
- Revant Sharan 50 wickets
- Saravana Kumar Chandran 50 WK dismissals
- Priyank Shah and Rudesh Audikesavalu - highest Div 2 partnership for any wicket - 90 for the 2nd wicket.