After all 3 of our teams got washed out last weekend, hopes were high that the annual Deonarine Cup tournament would be played in better weather.
These hopes were dashed on Day 1, as our first game against Avengers saw us fielding in the rain until eventually the umpires called the game off with it evenly poised, Avengers 3/97 off 14.1 overs. Scorecard
Day 2 would see clearer skies, but a wet and slow outfield. Opting to bowl first, our bowlers did a great job throughout, restricting Titans to 8/120 off 20. Shadab Ahmed would end up with the best figures, taking 2/20 off 4, with Sagar Mandhan, Daksh Talwar, Ajay Deb, Zeeshan Ansari and Priyank Trivedi all taking one each amid tight spells.
Vikas Salaria got us off to a great start in the chase, as we reached 27 after 2 overs. Unfortunately the wheels fell off from there. Zee gave us hope with 27 off 25, but nobody else could get going and we fell 22 runs short, 98 all out. A very disappointing loss which saw our chances of winning the Deo Cup evaporated once again. Scorecard
We then played East Coast in the last game of the tournament, a win for them securing the Cup, while we only had pride and an 8 game club wide winning streak over them to play for. They won the toss and batted first, and made us pay for some missed chances as they piled up 3/180 off 20 overs. Daksh, Ajay and Priyank took a wicket each, while Zee had the best economy rate of 7.0 as all our bowlers got hit.
Once again we struggled in the chase, falling to 4/51 in the 7th with only Andrew Irving (30 off 17) making a score of note. Enter Satnam Singh, who would go on to play one of the best knocks seen in a Cannons jersey, smacking 72 off 38 with 7 sixes. He played the lead role in partnerships of 70 with Daksh (21 off 21) and 49 with Jaideep Singh (23 off 15), to the point where we needed 7 off the last over. Satnam would fall on the first ball, and after which 4 runs were scored off the next 4 balls, with good death bowling countered by urgent running between the wickets, captain Sagar would face up to the last ball needing 3 to win. With a tie enough for East Coast to win the Cup, and a slow outfield with 5 fielders on the boundary, a six was going to be the most likely way to get the win. The ball pitched in Sagar's arc, and he couldn't have hit it any better as he sent it way over the cow corner boundary for six to extend Cannons steak over ECCC to 9 games and deliver the Deo Cup to Titans. Scorecard
A tournament that we are yet to win eludes us again. While it was fun being a factor in deciding the champions in the last game, we really should have been playing for the Cup ourselves, but had a bad batting performance at the worst possible time. Hopefully the positive energy from the comeback win feeds into our league games for the rest of the season.
Thanks to all our sponsors for helping us achieve these results in 2023. 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.
