Rain disrupted play but stayed away long enough to ensure all games over the weekend yielded results in the GMIS JCA league.

Duckworth and Lewis were kept busy as they were called on to play a deciding role in wins for TKCC and Ceylon CC, while Challengers CC prevailed in a low scoring thriller.

The weekend started off with the Indian XI comfortably beating the Australian XI in the annual Kangaroo-Curry Cup held to celebrate both Australia Day and India’s Republic Day.

Pallav Malhotra went on a rampage with his 94 of just 67 balls helping setup a huge score of 212 for the Indian XI. Adam Jones’ fifty led the Australian XI’s chase but he did not receive much support from the other end as his partners succumbed to Vimal Nair’s guile.

This was the 10th edition of the Kangaroo-Curry Cup with India leading with six wins.

Texmoda TKCC Royals were keen to get back to their winning ways as they took on the Metro Indians who were still searching for their first win of the season.

Gorav Pathak and Poonam Bumb helped TKCC recover after the early loss of Ajeet Bhatt and were looking dangerous when Aditya Khurana struck with three crucial wickets. Kirubasankar also chipped in with wickets and TKCC were in deep trouble at 103 for 7. Mukesh Khetan batted well with the tail to ensure the bowlers had a score to defend.

Metro Indians, which have not had a good season with the bat, needed to fight hard to achieve the target of 143 and skipper Prabhukaliraj set about doing exactly that.

His counterpart, Mukesh Khetan, also stepped up, this time with the ball as he claimed two wickets in his third over. Kirubasankar once again, failed with the bat and with the threat of rain looming large, it was critical for Metro to not lose more wickets.

The spin of Vishal Garg proved too tempting to resist as Prabhu perished and at the fall of his wicket, the skies opened up and did not relent. No more play was possible and Metro Indians were 10 runs behind the DLS par score.

Challengers CC took on Indorama CC in the first of the two T20 games on Sunday and were soon in deep trouble having lost both their openers without a run on the board. Indorama skipper PC Sethi bowled superbly going for just six runs in his four overs.

The experienced Satinder Minhas, helped stage a strong recovery for Challengers through partnerships with Vimal Nair and Srini Govindraj. Abhishek Sharma however, bowled well to restrict Challengers to just 110 in their 20 overs.

Indorama CC was looking comfortable in its chase at 71 for 3 after 14 overs and the experienced presence of Vishwajit Tripathi and Nitin Joshi at the crease.

Krishna Menon’s 15th over, however, proved to be a game changer as he dismissed both these batsmen. Satheesh Kumar, then made it even worse for Indorama with two wickets in the 17th over. Eventually, Indorama fell short by 9 runs as their batsmen could not force the pace in the last two overs.

Ceylon CC took on Rebels CC in the last game of the weekend and was off to a slow start as it reached just 30 after seven overs.

The eighth over, which went for 17 runs including eight extras, changed the momentum in Ceylon’s favor. Gaurav Kapoor played the sheet anchor role to perfection while skipper Mufasil wielded the long handle as Ceylon finished well at 149.

The target was going to be stiff for Rebels, and Ceylon would have been nervous when Cameron Knox hit two sixes in just the second over. Some poor calling led to Knox being run out and some tight bowling by Shubham Patni and Sanjeewa followed.

Heavy rains prevented further play and Rebels were eight runs behind the DLS par score.

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