The group matches of the Ghana Cricket Association’s New year Invitational T20 League ended for MMG and Champions United Cricket Clubs on Sunday, January 15, 2023 on a bad note, as they lost their matches against Defenders XI and Punjab IPMC.
It started with MMG, who had to field first after Defenders won toss and elected to bat first. Chandrabos Sharon and Melvin TD gave Defenders a poor start when their innings ended with a run each after spending 2 and 8 minutes respectively. However, Francis Bakiweyem, the 3rd batter was decent with his 1 run per ball, achieving 33 in Defenders’ total of 149/10 in 19.4 overs, after Eric Amoah’s 34 minutes stay produced 35 runs, off 25 balls.
With 30 extras, MMG had a tough time chasing the 150 target and managed 97/7, while Defenders top Group A table with 8, having won by 52 runs.
Peter Ananya was just heating up for a deal when his pull shot was dropped on the 3.5 over and was thanking his stars. Not long after that, Lijesh Kumar had a magical 5 over, which saw both Vasant Shinde and Peter off on the 5.3 and 5.5 overs. Lijesh won player of the match with his 4.0-0-16-3.
BGC, Supreme follow with 6 points each, while Karizma lie 4th with 5 points. MMG, having beaten Ras Bingi and Hurricanes, finished 5th with 4 points.
Vice-captain of MMG Dinesh Butola says, they will bounce back stronger for the next league as they have seen some mistakes that the team will work on.
Punjab IPMC got closer to the top of the table after a brilliant 37 runs victory over Champions United in the afternoon. Punjab, with 3 wins out of 4, remain 3rd with 6 points, 2 less than Group B leaders CSK and Don Bruce.
Sadly, Champions United had to wrap up their group games with another loss, having secured only 1 win (against Salt n’ Pepper on October 23, 2022).
Punjab landed more jabs to Champions United in the first innings, scoring 142/5, after winning the toss and choosing to bat first. It was a day for national player, Amoluk Singh Sehmbi, who scored 65 runs, of 39 balls and was then adjudged Player of the Match.
Champions United exhibited great batting skills in the second innings but lacked the pace to make the runs and were limited to 105/7.
Nihal Abbas who spoke on behalf of the captain, says, they have learnt a lot of lessons.
“First if all, I want to congratulate the winning team, they played very well. We lost some rhythm in runs and in batting. It was a nice game and we tried our luck. We made some mistakes and we were trying to solve them. And you know, at times in a match, your decisions come good and bad. Our opponents actually played very well and it was bad luck for us. We have learnt a lot of lessons and we had a pretty bad fielding options, so we will get some lessons on bowling and batting. We are trying to learn more on our mistakes and we will come back hard.”
The race for the top two continues on Sunday, January 29, 2023 at the Achimota Cricket Oval C. Don Bruce will lock horns with the U-19 team in the Group B match, while BGC play as guest to Karizma.
By: Davis Nii Attuquaye Clottey
