T

his weekend saw teams vying for a spot in the crucial knock-out phase of the T20 Championship.

The Ceylon Warriors and the Senayan Lions proved to be the weekend'€™s big victors, snaring decisive wins against thoroughly out-matched opponents.

On Sunday, at Cibubur, Game 1 saw the Warriors score an impressive 9/183. Batsman Gaurav top-scored with 41 runs and was ably supported by his teammates. Franz (3/45) and Mark Bruny (2/28) were among the Barbarians'€™ most successful wicket-takers, but their efforts proved to no avail. The Barbarians'€™ batting performance was vastly substandard and the rolling thunder of the Ceylon bowling attack quickly saw the Barbarians crumble to a paltry 9/57, thereby conceding defeat to the Warriors by a huge margin of 126 runs.

In Game 1 between the Senayan Lions and the Metro Indians at GMIS grounds, the Lions scored 6/205. Batsman Prem top scored with 95 runs, coming heart-achingly close to achieving what would have been a brilliant ton. Prem was supported by Muhadis who scored a worthy 46 runs. The batsmen of Metro walked out to the pitch to deliver their response, but a fine bowling performance by Raj (3/6) and Anjar (2/15) made it a one-sided contest that saw Metro suffer a brutal collapse for just 31 runs, handing a mammoth 174 run victory to the Lions.

Game 2 at Cibubur saw a nail-biting contest between DKI and the Jaguars. Being asked to bat first, Jaguars put up an impressive score of 6/152. The Jaguars'€™ Dhimanshu scored 86 runs, and the DKI'€™s Juni claimed 4/21. In response, despite impressive knocks by Rido (60 runs) and Yeri (34 runs), DKI fell just 8 runs short of the target set by the Jaguars. Martin Eddy finished with 2/21, including a tight last over.

In the second match at the GMIS, opting to bat first, the Mavericks were all out for 119 runs. Samir scored 45 runs and Chetan 33. Pallav and Rajnish took three and two wickets respectively. WPP then knocked off the runs with ease, losing only two wickets to secure victory with William Noronha ending the game not-out on 57 runs.

Earlier on Saturday, at the GMIS grounds, in Game1, TKCC established a formidable score of 7/209 against the Menara Devils, thanks to an aggressive 99* (not-out) by Chetan Suryawanshi. Mohit took 3/40. In response, the Devils fell short by 36 runs scoring 6/173. Deepak Khullar (31*) and Neetesh (31) were the top scorers. Nagesh and Shinde took 2 wickets each.

In the second game, between the Emerio Dragons and Challengers Super Kings (CSK), an all round performance by Sunil Samtani (34 runs and 2/19) saw CSK win by 26 runs. CSK scored 7/169 in its 20 allocated overs, with Santosh top scoring with 43 runs and Suresh Subramaniam with 41. Emerio were restricted to a score of 7/143, with Palwinder Singh scoring 29 runs.