T

he Jakarta Cricket Association (JCA) celebrated the successes of its 2015-2016 season at its annual gala dinner on Saturday with more than 300 cricketing enthusiasts in attendance. The Indian cricketing legend, Farokh Engineer, one of the best wicket-keepers of all-time, was the guest of honor this year. He enthralled the audience with many humorous stories and anecdotes from his cricketing times.

“I hadn’t realized the extent of popularity of cricket in Jakarta. Delighted to see the great work being done by both the JCA and PCI to develop the game here” said a pleasantly surprised Farokh.

The JCA Lifetime Achievement award was conferred on Dhiraj Nagpal for his yeoman contribution to the development of cricket in Jakarta. The MVP awards were won by Harish Tiwari (for Division 1) and Kirubasankar (for Division 2). Kiruba also won the Best Bowler and Best Batsman awards, while Vishav Sharma was the Best Wicket-Keeper for Division 2. Naresh Gupta took home the Best Batsman award while Harish Tiwari also won the Best Bowler award for Division 1.

Ahmad Ramdoni won his second JCA Best Wicket-Keeper award while Gema Fajar took home the Most Promising Indonesian Player award. Jaguar CC was the proud recipient of the Division 2 Winner cup while Metro Indians CC won the Division 2 Runners-Up cup. Senayan CC won the Runner-Up title for Division 1, while WISCI Wanderers won their fifth Championship title in a row, setting a new record.

Yadavas Senayan CC crushed Jakarta Barbarians with a 10-wicket win at Purwakarta. The Senayan CC bowlers, led by Lucky Angga Kusuma (3/11) stifled Jakarta Barbarians and despite knocks from Ben Burgess (38) and Jon Baker (34) and having wickets in hand, they could only manage a below-par 122/5 in their 35 overs. Viraj Bhammar (53no) and Muhaddis (61no) ensured that Senayan CC got to the target with all 10 wickets in hand and more than 16 overs to spare.

In a tense, rain-affected game, Ceylon CC batsmen held their nerves to overcome Fez Rebels CC by two wickets in the 35-over Division 2 encounter. After electing to bat first, Fez Rebels CC needed a great knock from OP Rajesh (80) to help them recover to a competitive 152/6 in 35 overs. Rebels CC started well when they had Ceylon CC at 11/2 after five overs, when heavy rain enveloped the ground. The teams sportingly decided to play in very wet conditions and on resumption, Dihan Silva (34) showed glimpses of his threatening form to put Ceylon on track. The young Alfhariz (3/29) then broke through to have Ceylon in trouble. Rajeev Kumar (36) then played a great knock to shepherd his team home.

WISCI Wanderers got back to winning ways with a comfortable 56-run win over a struggling Menara CC. Rajeev Rajeswaran (42) and Muhammad Zahir (37) laid the foundation for Big Dave (24) to blast WISCI to 158/6 in 20 overs. Menara CC just could not get going as Vipin Chawla (3/15), Suhail (2/13) and Dave (2/22) ran amok to bowl Menara out for just 102 runs. Muhammad Akram provided sole resistance with 32 runs.

Indorama CC prevailed over Mavecrics CC by 12 runs in a tight T20 game at GMIS grounds. R. Srikkanth’s (50) experience and some wayward Mavecrics bowling (38 wides) helped take Indorama CC to a fighting 138/9 after Sanjeev Modi (3/24) and Nimesh Shah (2/17) had made inroads. Despite some good middle order batting from Harshad Bhat (35) and Keyur (32) Mavecrics fell short by 12 runs thanks to some good bowling by Sandeep Kukkar (3/25) and Abhishek Sharma (2/14).