Our Div 1 team won their semi final today against Nova Scotia Avengers CC, booking their spot in the best-of-3 Finals against East Coast CC next weekend.
Winning the toss and fielding first against a team we'd only beaten once in 2022, it was again Shadab Ahmed who made the early inroads with 2 wickets in his second over, the third of the innings. We would have to wait until the 9th over for our next wicket, but this started a run of 6 successive overs with a wicket, Priyank Trivedi and Zeeshan Ansari taking 3 each during this spell, leaving Avengers at 8/79 in the 14th. Their tail wagged a bit, but Daksh Talwar broke the rearguard stand and then Shadab wrapped up the innings with his club record 30th wicket of 2022. Avengers all out 112 in the 19th over.
Danish Khan continued his recent good form with 30 off 28 balls, putting on 40 for the first wicket with Rudesh Audikesavalu (10). Antony Roche hit a quick 26 to remove any chasing jitters, and Arslan Khan compiled an unbeaten 20 to take us over the line with 7 wickets and 26 balls to spare. A convincing semi final win that should give us a lot of confidence as we progress to the Finals against East Coast next weekend. Scorecard
Earlier today, our Div 3 team won the toss and batted first in their semi final against Halifax Titans CC. Scoring was tough against some disciplined and skilled bowling, only managing 85 runs in our 20 overs, with opener Steve Smith top scoring with 29.
As is their trademark, the guys defended this low target with everything they had, taking regular wickets and getting them 6 down with 15 runs still required. Abhilash Chandran picked up 3 wickets while skipper Souvik Mitra bowled a great spell conceding only 8 runs from his 4 overs while taking one wicket. Unfortunately the target proved too small in the end and Titans got over the line with 4 wickets in hand. The end of an encouraging season for our Div 3 team, a marked improvement from 2021 with lots of promising players making their mark. Scorecard
On Saturday, Div 2 played their final regular season game, with a playoff spot already secured but a chance to rise from 3rd to 2nd. Batting first, Andrew Irving attacked early with 26 off 18, but overall the batting lineup again disappointed as we fell to 7/64. Not for the first time this year, our bowlers showed the way with the bat, this time being Hiren Patel (33) and Kevin Tuvar (12) combining for a 53 run 8th wicket partnership, before Jaideep Singh (15 off 11) boosted us to 137 all out from the last ball of the 20th.
After their openers progressed to 33, Hiren continued his fine game with 4 wickets in his four overs, conceding only 12 runs in the process. At 4/59 after 10.3, the game was within our grasp, but Titans batted well from here and got ahead of the rate. Kanwaljeet Singh took 2 late wickets to give us some hope, but they ended up passing us with 4 wickets and 8 balls to spare. This loss means we finish in 3rd place and will play the semi final against East Coast CC next Saturday. Scorecard
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.
