T

his weekend saw teams opting to chase down the target by making the opponents bat first in all three games at the Tata Motors JCA League.

In a Division 1 game between KLN WISCI and hosts GMIS CC at the GMIS grounds, WISCI returned winners by four wickets. Being asked to bat first on a ground known to be full of runs, GMIS had a cautious start, reaching 55/3 at the first drinks break.

With hard-hitting batsman and skipper Naresh Gupta at the crease, GMIS, as expected, motored along to plunder 109 runs in the next 12 overs to reach 164/6 at the 24 over stage.

Naresh scored his third half century of this season with 68 runs that was laced with seven sixes. Jalaj Chaturvedi then carried on the momentum, scoring 61 runs, but with little support from the other end, GMIS was bowled out for 229 runs in the 34th over.

Deepak Singh took 3/36, while Tim Watson and William Noronha took 2 wickets each.

Chasing 230 runs to secure their fourth consecutive win, the defending champions started cautiously, but regular loss of wickets had them reeling at 85/4 at one stage. A fine century partnership then between Dave Holme (75*) and skipper William Noronha (45 runs) ensured there were no further jitters and helped WISCI overhaul the target in the 33rd over, losing only six wickets. All-rounder Aman Singh chipped in with 35 runs.

For GMIS, Pratyush Chaturvedi took 2/28, while Jalaj, Karan Tiwari and Manish took one wicket each.

In another Division 1 game at Cibubur on Sunday, TKCC took on Emerio. Being asked to bat first, Emerio got off to a good start with a fine opening partnership of 82 runs, lead by Palwinder Singh, who scored 54 runs.

Unable to capitalize on this start, Emerio began losing its way when Mukesh Ketan was introduced to the bowling attack.

His fine spell of bowling put the skids on the scoring rate, which saw Emerio lose all its remaining wickets for just 78 runs for a below-par score of 160 runs. Ketan'€™s efforts were rewarded with him bagging 4 wickets conceding just 25 runs. Viplow Singh and Maneesh shared the remaining spoils by taking 2 wickets each.

TKCC then got off to a good start led by Neeraj Chaddha (25 runs) before solid contributions by Malik Thariani and Hitesh Malhotra sealed the match in TKCC'€™s favor. TKCC overhauled the target in only the 22nd over with minimal fuss.

Malik scored 41 runs, while Hitesh scored 38 runs. For Emerio, strike bowler David Surjit did well with the ball, taking 2/45.

With very little support from the other bowlers and a score that wasn'€™t going to challenge the batting line up of TKCC, despite the rain interruption, the winners romped home losing only 5 wickets, while also ensuring that their net run-rate received a boost.

In a Division 2 game on Sunday between Chairos Tigers and Challengers CC at the GMIS grounds, an excellent unbeaten knock by Vimal Nair and an all-round display by Santhosh Kumar helped Challengers CC win by 5 wickets.

Batting first, the Tigers reached 111/5 at the 24 over stage, before being finally all-out for 176 runs in 32.5 overs. There were useful contributions with the bat from Yoko (40 runs), Repen (28 runs) and Nando (20 runs). All-rounder Sunil Samtani was the pick of the bowlers, taking 4/50, while Santhosh Kumar supported with 2/20.

With challengers in a spot of bother at 57/4 in 12 overs, an unbeaten match-winning partnership for the 6th wicket between Vimal Nair (80*) and Santhosh Kumar (34*) sealed the match in Challenger'€™s favor. For the tigers, Yoko took 3/28, while Aki took one wicket.