Cannons win 2022 40 Over League!

Cannons win 2022 40 Over League!

The Cannons 40 over team took their unbeaten record into the Final against a East Coast Cricket Club, and keen to get our hands on the trophy after losing the Final last year.

Batting first on a wet outfield after losing the toss, Danish Khan picked a great time for his first fifty since joining the Cannons, hitting 62 and putting on partnerships of 51 with Andrew Irving and 52 with his brother Arslan for the first 2 wickets. From 1/103, our innings fell apart as the ball lost its shape, collapsing to 9/146. Priyank Trivedi and Shadab Ahmed then added 28 very valuable runs for the last wicket to take us up to 174, all out in the 37th over.

Early wickets would be key to defending the total, and Shadab obliged, hitting the stumps in the first over. Daksh Talwar's leg spin was used with the new ball from the other end, and he would also strike in his first over, taking out their talisman at slip. Shadab struck again in his next, and we had them 3/10 in the 3rd. East Coast would cautiously make their way to the drinks break without further loss, the game evenly poised at 3/56. Shadab again would make an impact in the first over after the break, a great piece of fielding at mid wicket making the batsmen hesitate mid pitch, and ended with their skipper run out at the bowlers end. Zeeshan Ansari then ripped out their middle order, coming around the wicket and taking the pace off the ball accounting for their in bat LBW, then a low full toss somehow being top edged to short third man. In his next over, he tempted the bat to hit in the air, but only as far as Andrew at log off. All of a sudden the score was 7/73 and we were closing in. 

East Coast had a long batting lineup and 2 capable bats in at this point, who began to build a little partnership. Again, it would be Shadab's fielding that would end this threat, a great one handed stop at mid wicket freezing the batsmen mid pitch and resulting in a run out at the keeper's end. Next over, Daksh came back on and took out their other threat, caught by the skipper Sagar Mandan inches inside the boundary at long off. One wicket left, 83 to win. Their last pair then proceeded to make us wait 9 overs and 28 runs, but Zeeshan returned to have the final say, getting the batsman to chop on to his stumps to seal a 54 run win, and the 2nd championship in club history after the 2020 Div 1 win. 

Scorecard

Great job by the entire squad, we had 21 players play in the 40 over league and all played a part in this win. Congrats to Sagar on his first trophy as a skipper, and Danish who was named Player of the Final for his game top score of 62.