Three of our teams in action this week, with Div 1 getting us started last Tuesday evening in a 2023 Finals rematch against Hfx-Titans CC. Sent in, Daksh Talwar got us going in the early stages with 36 off 31 balls, but momentum was tough to find as we lost our 5th wicket in the 15th over with the score at 89. Enter Satnam Singh, who smashed 52 off 21 balls with 5 huge straight sixes. He did not work alone, with Jaideep Singh playing the perfect supporting innings with an unbeaten 23 off 16. We would lose 3 wickets in the last over, but not before we put up 8/163 off our 20.
Shadab Ahmed got our defense off to the perfect start with 2 wickets in the first over. Satnam took the new ball at the other end and took one himself, as Titans fell to 3/17. From there they steadied, putting on 92 for the next wicket, but were always behind the required rate. Jaideep capped off a great allround game with 2/29 off his 4 overs, while Satnam returned to take his second wicket and Titans fell 10 runs short. 2 wins from 2 for our Div 1 teams with the Deo Cup up next. Scorecard.
On Saturday, our Div 2 team would also come up against Titans, the team we beat in last year's Final. Having missed out on batting in last week's abandoned season opener, the signs of rust were clear as we were all out for 81 off only 15 overs. That we reached that much was down to our last wicket pair of Mohammed Tanweer (top scoring with 14 from number 11) and Arshpreet Singh who took us from 57 to 81. Arshpreet then led with the ball taking 2 wickets, with Hiren Patel and Nihar Shah taking 1 each in promising signs that we have a great spin trio this year. This would be our only success though, as Titans passed us with 6 wickets and 6 overs to spare. Poor start to the season, but there is only one way to go from here! Scorecard
Last up on Sunday morning would be our Div 3 team against East Coast CC. New skipper Kazi Rahman won the toss and elected to bowl first, and it looked like a great decision as our bowlers restricted them to 9/112 off 20. Opening bowlers Fahim Choudhary and Kanwaljeet Singh both bowled tidy spells up front and got a wicket each. Ragu Ravichandran and Maryo John then continued the good work, each picking up a wicket, before Ravi Revu (2 wickets) and 3 run outs ensured they couldn't accelerate at the death. Sreekumar BalaKrishnan (19), Harish Chandra (28) and Skahti Badgujar (14) were our leading contributors in the chase, but losing 4 wickets to run outs (including 3 of the top order) made things harder than they needed to be for us, and we fell 5 runs short in the chase. Still, some good signs in the first game of the year with many new faces showing they will be big contributors as the year goes on. Scorecard
