T

he Jakarta Cricket Association’s (JCA) T20 2016 tournament resumed this Sunday after a three-week break for Idul Fitri celebrations.

The weekend was characterized by two contrasting games, one a last-over thriller for Senayan CC and the other a one-sided demolition by Menara Devils

Harish Tiwari, who captains the Devils, once again demonstrated why he is topping the charts for the most valuable player award at the halfway stage of the association’s T20 league.

He came up with yet another stellar performance with the bat, ball and on the field to help his side demolish the Indonesian development team, DKI Tigers, by a whopping 10 wickets.

At the GMIS grounds on Sunday afternoon, opening the batting in the company of veteran Subhash Modgil, the pair took every bowler apart as they made light work of the small 91-run target set by DKI, and reached the score in only 8.1 overs without losing any wickets.

Needing to desperately improve Menara’s net run rate, Tiwari led the way from the very first over as the pair plundered 18 runs.

Enjoying an early reprieve, Tiwari made DKI Tigers pay for it dearly as he remained unbeaten on 54 runs off just 24 balls, in an innings that was studded with 5 cleanly hit sixes and 4 boundaries.

Modgil ensured that he provided able support remaining unbeaten on a well-made 26 runs off 27 balls, which included two sweetly timed sixes, showing glimpses of the demolition man that he once was in his time.

Earlier, winning the toss and batting first, on a ground where the conditions made run scoring laborious, DKI found the going tough as Menara bowlers kept them on a tight leash with some accurate bowling and ground fielding.

Satish Rani led the bowling with 4 overs of innocuous spin, returning with figures of 2/15, while Neetesh Pansare, Mohit Keswani, Pradeep Patnaik and Tiwari chipped in with a wicket each to restrict DKI to just 90/9 in 20 overs.

Tiwari, who is difficult from being kept away from the action, assisted in 3 run-outs and an all-round performance that deservedly won him the man of the match award.

For DKI, Sang top scored with 16 runs, while Aditya, Ardan, Amin and Riski chipped in with double-digit scores.

The second game between Senayan CC and Ceylon Cavaliers was a low-scoring thriller.

Satheesh’s 2 wickets had Senayan CC in some bother early on after they chose to bat first.

They consolidated a score of 44/3 in the first 10 overs. Despite Parag’s 24, Senayan CC could only muster 97/8 in their 20 overs. Satheesh bowled a splendid spell of 3/9 and he was helped by Rajeev 2/20 and Usman Afridi 1/15. Going into the break, Ceylon Cavaliers would have felt the more confident side having restricted Senayan CC to less than 100.

The young Indonesian rising star, Gema Fajar, had other ideas and his brilliant 2/14 in 4 overs meant that the Cavaliers had a very poor start, reaching only 29/2 in their 10 overs.

Vimal, 40, and Sekar, 18, then provided the impetus for a handsome fightback by Ceylon and despite a fabulous 3/16 by Lucky, Ceylon had the match well under control and needed 6 to win off the last over with wickets in hand. Enter Manick, who bowled a fantastic last over, taking 3 wickets and conceding only 3 runs to ensure Ceylon Cavaliers were bowled out for 95 runs, allowing Senayan CC to win this exciting low-scorer by 2 runs.