C

eylon CC, in its fourth match of the season, secured its first victory of the Tata Motors JCA League when it defeated the favorites, the Mavecrics, by 73 runs in a Division 2 encounter.

Winning the toss and batting first at Cibubur grounds on Sunday, Ceylon CC got off to a good start, reaching 77/1 in 12 overs. Despite losing wickets in the middle overs, Ceylon maintained a steady run rate, reaching 155/5 at the 24 over mark. With top scorer Mohammed Mufasel back in the hut after scoring 49 runs, Ceylon could not capitalize on the last few overs, as the team was bundled out for 172 runs in 29 overs. A fine bowling performance by all-rounder Miraz Monga, whose spell of six overs saw him take 3/36, and Rupesh Shah'€™s 2/16 ensured Ceyon did not bat out its full quota of 35 overs. Saleem Khan (21 runs) and Praveen Uppal (25 runs) were the other contributors with the bat.

In response, the Mavecrics could not forge any partnership of significance, which meant that they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Kesavadas Ravindran broke the back of the Mavecric'€™s batting line-up with his burst of four wickets at the top of the order. With a target that was still manageable, the match turned on its head when veteran Dihan Silva took an outstanding catch of his own, bowling to dismiss danger-man and Mavecric'€™s leading run scorer Miraz Monga. The Mavecrics were eventually bowled out for 99 runs in the 21st over, falling short of the target by 73 runs. Kesavadas finished with 4/25 while Pradeep Patnaik was the lone man standing for the Mavecrics with a top score of 38 runs.

In another Division 2 fixture at GMIS Grounds on Sunday, the Fez Rebels moved to the third position on the points table, behind Jaguars CC and Metro CC when it beat Metro CC by 43 runs.

Winning the toss and batting first, the Rebels got off to a bright start lead by Warwick Peters who scored 52 runs. The middle order then carried on the momentum through Marten Eddy (32 runs) and OP Rajesh (41 runs). A few lusty blows in the end by Dan Thomas (37 runs) helped the Rebels reach a competitive score of 245/6 in its full quota of 35 overs. Metro Skipper Prabhu Kaliraj bowled a good spell taking 2/36 off his six overs.

In response, Metro'€™s opening batsman Kiruba Sankar lead the charge with an aggressive 66 runs (off 43 balls ), which kept them in the hunt, on an outfield that is known to give full value to the shots played by the batsmen. With Kiruba'€™s exit, the Rebels began to tighten the noose through some fine bowling efforts by all-rounders Marten Eddy and Mick Dumenil, who finished with figures of 3/31 and 2/28 respectively. The mounting required run rate was too much for the Metro lower order batsmen to handle as they were eventually bowled out for 202 runs. Srinivasan was the next best with the bat, scoring 30 runs for Metro.

Earlier on Saturday, in a Division 1 game at Cibubur, WPP India XI beat table toppers Senayan CC by 83 runs. Batting first, WPP despite a jittery start came back with some fine partnerships to finish at 247/6 in its 35 overs. Pallav Malhotra top scored with 91 runs, narrowly missing out on a well-deserved ton. Vasudevan Parthasarathy supported effectively with a crucial 68 runs. For Senayan, Ashit Mehta took 4/44 with the ball. With a stiff target to chase, Senayan kept losing wickets as no batsmen went past the 50 run mark, eventually being all out for 164 runs in the 27th over. Raj Kapadia and Muhaddis scored 48 runs and 44 runs respectively while WPP'€™s strike bowler Bhuvan took 4/30 supported by man-of-the-match Vasu, who claimed 3/20.