The excitement of the Ghana Cricket Association’s New Year Invitational T20 league continued at the Achimota Cricket Oval C with week 12 actions on Sunday, December 11, 2022.
Defenders Cricket Club were on a mission to catch those at the top in Group A and successfully did that, as they stretched Hurricanes Cricket Club in an 88 runs victory.
Hurricanes dared Defenders as the former won toss and elected to field and Defenders scored 152/6.
Melvin TD was dismissed early (2.1) from Chandrahash Yadav’s delivery, while Defenders were struggling to score but the partnership between opener, Chandrabos Sharon 42(37) and Francis Bakiweyem 36(28) which produced 94 runs, set a firm foundation, difficult for the Hurricanes to destroy. Defenders were already at century (102/3) after 13 overs and achieved the total score with
Hurricanes, were given a good restriction as they lost 2 quick wickets with 25/2 in 5 overs, 40/4 in 10 overs and 53/6 in 15 overs. Albin Abraham, who was adjudged the player of the match, got his 3rd wicket from 12 deliveries on the 5.4 over, when Chandrabos Sharon brilliantly caught Lalit Tomar at cow corner.
Albin (2.2-0-7-5), wrapped up the score for Hurricanes with a brace on the 17.1 and 17.2 overs, as Hurricanes could only 64/10.
Defenders are now top of Group A, with 6 points, pushing Karizma and MMG to 2nd and 3rd respectively, while Hurricanes lie 6th with 2 points.
In Group B, Swami Sports Club moved 1 place up, to 5th position after their first win in 3 matches. Picking the vital 2 points against Champions United earlier on Sunday, Swami dropped their victims to 6th with an NRR advantage.
Swami Sports knew what they wanted as they gave Champions United the first innings, after they won toss.
With the likes of captain Nirav Pomal (4.0-0-20-4), Navin Rabadiya (3.1-0-10-3), Paresh Shiyani (4.0-0-24-2) and Anil Shetty (1.0-0-4-1), Swami Sports Club kept Champions United at 84/10 in 16.1 overs.
Taking over the crease, Paresh Shirani *47(37) who came on in the 2nd over (1.2) and scored a boundary 4, off his first ball, added to his bowling performance, scoring his final boundary 4, to wrap up the 2nd innings with Swami at 86/5 in 11.5 overs and winning by 5 wickets.
Paresh Shirani, having spent 57 minutes scoring 7 boundary fours, with a strike rate of 127.03 was adjudged the player of the match.
Meanwhile, the top of the table remains the same, with Don Bruce commanding with 8 points, followed by CSK with 6 points, Punjab IPMC with 4 and U-19 with 2.
Into week 13, come Sunday, December 18, Ras Bingi comes up against BGC in Group A, while Salt n’ Pepper push for their first victory, coming face to face against U-19 team.
By: Davis Nii Attuquaye Clottey
