The Saltpond City Beach was the arena that saw all the entertainment and excitement as Sea Ravens and Sea Horse stood tall among other competing teams in the 3rd edition of the Beach Cricket on Friday, September 15, 2023.
Saltpond Sea Ravens stood tall in the girl’s division, having defeated both Hinii Marine Girls and Saltpond Dolphins in the 5 over games. Amassing 4 points, they scored 26/1 in 3 overs to win by 6 wickets after Hinii Marines had scored 25/4 in the first game.
The Ravens came back to beat Saltpond Dolphins by another 6 wickets in the third game. The Dolphins were taken out of the sea and could not find their wings, so scored 31/1 in the first innings. Sea Raven then scored 32/1 and were crowned champions, as the game between Dolphins and Hinii ended in a draw.
Hinii scored 35/2 and Saltpond Dolphins also scored 35/1 and they shared the spoils.
Mary Ndzibah of Sea Ravens was adjudged the best bowler, as she took 3 wickets, gave away 13 runs in 4 overs, while Grace Eshun of Hinii Marines also walked away with a beautiful Cricket bag for being the best batter. She scored 11 runs, off 12 balls in 2 innings.
In the boy’s round robin, Sea Horse’s walk over against Kuntu Blessed boys gave them upper hand over Hinii Marines after each of them won two matches.
Sea Horse beat Sea Lions by 2 wickets after 27/3 and 28/3 results. They beat Hinii Marines too by 4 wickets, scoring 33/1 in 4.1 overs, 1 more than Hinii scored (32/2), and accrued 6 points to be crown them champions.
Hinii Marines came 2nd with 4 points. They also defeated Kuntu Blessed boys by 16 runs in the second match of the day. Hinii scored 46/2 and limited Kuntu to 30/2.
The runners up had another 10 runs victory against Sea Lions. They scored 45/1 in the first innings and restricted the Lions to 35/1.
The other match which saw Sea Lions emerging 2nd runner up was against Kuntu Blessed, which the former won by 3 wickets and picked their 2 points. Sea Lions reached their target of 42/2 after Kuntu had scored 37/2.
Richard Owusu of Hinii Marines scored 47 runs, off 37 balls in 3 matches, all not out and won the Best Batter accolade. Nurudeen Ibrahim of Sea Lions also walked home with a Cricket jersey for his outstanding performance in bowling. He took 7 wickets, gave away 30 runs in 6 overs from 3 matches played.
President of the Mfansteman Cricket Association is Francis Nii Ayikai Okine and he spoke to TalksenseSports after the one-day event.
“The beach cricket has been very successful and you saw the excitement and competitiveness in the games played. I want to at this point acknowledge the late Mr Ackom for bringing this game to Saltpond and also to all GCA Executives and staff for their immense contribution to the development of the game here. We will not sleep. We have seen how the game is changing the lives of our people here. Nurudeen played the U-19 and Grace was invited to the Senior women’s camp. These are just few and we know more is coming.”
Lawrence Ahadzi, Ghana Cricket Development Officer was present to join in the fun while steering the affairs of the games.
Development of Cricket in the hubs of the GCA is still ongoing with plans to enter into the other parts of Ghana.
Currently, Saltpond has a team; Ras Bingi, that participates in the national Men’s league. With the lack of hard surface for training being their major challenge, they practice and perfect in the game.
By: Davis Nii Attuquaye Clottey
