T

he best performers of the Tata Motors JCA League were announced on Friday. This season saw a record high of 400 players playing the League. Gema Fajar was awarded the Best Indonesian Young player award on the back of his tremendous all-round performance for the All-Indonesian team, Chairos Tigers.

Harish Tiwari from Menara CC won the Overall Division 1 MVP title in a tightly fought contest with Naresh Gupta, who won the Best Batsman title. Naresh from GMIS CC, famous for his Gayle-like knocks, scored 747 runs with 1 ton at an amazing strike rate of 197. Harish Tiwari also claimed the Best Bowler title with a 27 wicket haul. Ahmad Ramdoni from Senayan CC, one of the most promising Indonesian cricketers of the league, once again won the Best Wicket-keeper award for Division 1 with 22 dismissals including 7 stumpings.

Meanwhile, the Division 2 awards were swept away by Kirubasankar from Metro Indians, who had a phenomenal season, winning the MVP of the Division, Best Batsman & Best Bowler awards, With 806 runs, 31 wickets & 15 fielding dismissals, Kiruba was un-toppable this season. A truly dominating performance indeed. Vishav Sharma from Mavecrics won the Best Wicket-keeper of Division 2 award with 20 dismissals.

The non-stop Cricketing calendar, continues, with the JCA T20 Tournament for the year starting this Saturday. In the 1st match of this tournament, Jaguar CC were made to fight-hard for a 4 wicket win over Menara Devils. Choosing to bowl first, Jaguar CC’s bowlers exercised good control with Jagdeep 1/13 & Sasi 2/19 bowling good lengths. Despite good cameos from Pradeep Patnaik 23 (21 balls) & John Dulip 22(19), Menara could only manage 114/7 in 20 overs. They fought-back well with Harish & Mayank & 2 early wickets had Jaguars in some bother. But a super-quick 34 (18) from Dhimanshu, and a late-burst by Jagdeep 17 (9) helped Jaguar CC overcome Mohit’s 2/17 spell and cross the line with 2 overs to spare.

In the 2nd game of Saturday, Emerio Dragons beat Ceylon Cavaliers comprehensively by 48 runs. Naidu got Emerio off to a brisk start, but Faheem (0/19) pulled things back for Ceylon. Maneesh Dubey 51*(28) & Bhuwan 31(22) then put on a fabulous partnership to boost Emerio to a strong 168/5 in 20 overs. Bhuwan, then got into the act with the ball (2/9) and his early spell ensured Ceylon were always going to be behind the asking rate. Despite some rear-guard fight by Dhanasekar 40* & Vimal 21, Ceylon could only manage 120/6 in their 20 overs.

Last year’s winners TKCC Royals took on the Developmental Indonesian side, DKI Jakarta in the 3rd game. The young DKI team did well to play out 20 overs but could only manage 105/6, thanks to a solid 34 by Aditya Guslawa. Manish Tripathi was the main wicket-taker with 3/17. TKCC Royals were then made to work hard and they needed 17 overs to get to 106/3 in 17 overs. Pallav 37 & Gaurav Pathak 32 were the main scorers for TKCC.

In the 4th game, Victorious Secret comfortably beat Senayan CC by 6 wickets. Ramdoni 27 & Nando 22 helped Senayan CC recover from a shaky start. But tight bowling by Suhail Modak (3/23), David Singha (2/14) & Kiruba Sankar (2/20) meant that Senayan CC could only get to 126 for 7 in 20 overs. Victorious Secret looked were in good control of the chase & reached the target of 127 easily for the loss of 4 wickets in 17.2 overs. Kiruba Sankar scored 28 and Ajeet Bhatt 20. Nando and Gema picked up a wicket each.