Teams decked out in colorful new uniforms brightened up the dry, rain-starved grounds of the GMIS JCA league over the weekend. The games themselves were a mixed bag of closely fought finishes and one-sided, dominant affairs.

The Jakarta Barbarians were indeed barbaric in their crushing win over WPP India XI in their 35 over Division 1 game on Sunday.

Last season’s MVP, Ben Burgess, picked up from where he left off, with his superbly paced knock setting a solid platform for the Barbarians. WPP fought back with some quick scalps with wicket keeper Partha Kabi having a hand in four dismissals while Pallav Malhotra and Ajay Kurtkoti bowled well. A good 63-run partnership between Vivek Singh and Tim Gutsell ensured the Barbarians finished well at 208 from 35 overs.

The Vivek duo started off bowling brilliantly and soon WPP were three down for just 32 runs.

Pallav and Ramil Bansal tried their best to pull things back but Mohibullah Hussaini’s double strike derailed the recovery. The wily Lindsay Wood, then closed things off with a brilliant spell and WPP were bowled out for a paltry 77.

Earlier on Saturday, Texmoda TKCC Royals beat Senayan CC in a final over thriller riding on Mukesh Khetan’s superb all-round performance. His miserly length forced batsmen to take risks and led to Senayan losing its openers early after opting to bat first. Amar Kapadia then anchored a strong Senayan revival and good support from Saurabh Sudhir Mehta and Maneesh Dubey ensured a strong total of 148 in 20 overs.

TKCC’s reply followed a similar trajectory with the openers going early, but a counterattacking 73 runs partnership between Rajesh Santhanam and Mukesh Khetan got TKCC back into a commanding position.

A flurry of wickets triggered by Mukesh’s run-out pulled things back for Senayan. With six runs needed off the last over, the experienced Raj Kapadia struck with the first ball, and followed up his wicket with two dot balls. However, Vishal Garg held on to his nerves and took his side home with a boundary of the fifth ball.

Rawamangun CC, the second team comprising entirely of Indonesian players, got its season off to a winning start courtesy of another thrilling, last ball win. Rawamangun’s opening bowlers Agi Saptiazi and Juni Ariyadi were on target from the get-go and knocked out the Ceylon openers cheaply.

Baba Sivasankaran then rebuilt the Ceylon innings in partnership with Isaac Thambi. Contributions from Shuhab Hussain and Shubham Patni then got Ceylon to a par score of 144 from 20 overs.

Rohan Shirodkar continued to be the platform on which Rawamangun’s batting is built as he once again put on a good opening stand and consolidated the innings in the company of the experienced, Yeri Rosongna.

Shirodkar’s dismissal in the 15th over set the cat among the pigeons and 27 runs were needed off the last two overs. Yeri called on his vast experience to accelerate at the right moment, collecting 16 off the 19th over.

With 11 needed from the final over and with Yeri was off strike, Andrew Sandi struck a boundary off the first ball. A few more singles followed and a crucial dot ball meant a boundary was needed off the last ball. Yeri duly obliged and RCC were home in a nail-biter.

Menara CC made it two wins in two games, crushing Emerio CC in a T20 game.

The Menara openers fell cheaply to Emerio skipper Anji Katta. However, Usman Muhammad and Harish Tiwari put together a fabulous 103 runs partnership in just nine overs to set up a big total for their side despite conceding four wickets to Vineet Kumar.

Emerio CC could not gain any momentum in reply, consistently losing wickets to a much disciplined Menara bowling attack. Harshal Kulkarni and Vivek Shetty were the only Emerio batsmen of note as Zaheed Hameed wrapped things up quickly to give Menara a big win.

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