The race for the top honors in Division 2 of the GMIS JCA league got even tighter with wins this weekend for three of the top four contenders, Menara CC, Rawamangun CC & Rebels CC. We now have three teams tied on the same points at the top.

The fully Indonesian team, Rawamangun CC had to dig into their mental reserves to pull off a thrilling win against Emerio CC in a 35 overs game in Cibubur on Saturday. Shahbaz Muhammad & Gorla Satyanarayana batted well to get Emerio off to a solid start. Andrew Sandi then got rid of both of them in the 20th over to set the cat among the pigeons. Dzulham Afandi bowled a brilliant spell of 5 for 7 to trigger a batting collapse as Emerio were bowled out for 121.

Ahmad Abbas Khan got Emerio off to a good start claiming the wickets of the top three batsmen with just 31 runs on the board. Gorla Satyanarayana then swept away the RCC middle order with a four-wicket haul to have them reeling at 47 for 7. Then followed a brilliant fight back with the experienced Yeri Rosongna partnering superbly with Egi Randi as their 61 runs stand got RCC right back into the game. Gufran had Egi stumped with 14 runs still to get and two wickets in hand, but a big six from Yeri sealed the win for RCC.

Menara CC & Mavecrics CC faced off in the Menara Derby played at Cibubur on Sunday. Mavecrics CC chose to bat first and their innings was a stop-start affair with batsmen getting starts but not building on those starts.

Kartik Kapoor got rid of the ominous looking Keyur Moradia after he had got Mavecrics off to a decent start. Division 2 top wicket-taker, Iruthayaraj, then struck with four wickets to have Mavecrics in some trouble at 89 for 6. He then ran out Pradeep Patnaik and Mavecrics could only manage 112 in their 20 overs.

Nimesh Shah couldn’t work his magic in this game and Kartik Kapoor, playing his farewell game with support from skipper Usman Muhammad ensured that Menara CC cantered to an easy win with eight wickets in hand.

A resurgent Metro Indians took on Jaguar CC in a T20 game on Sunday at the GMIS ground and got off to a decent start after electing to bat first. Praveen Uppal got rid of the dangerous looking Kirubasankar just when he was poised to accelerate.

Sabu Joy & Arun resurrected the Metro innings but a good spell from Jagdeep Singh at the death restricted Metro to 134 for 9 in their 20 overs.

The Jaguar reply never got going as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals with Aditya Khurana being the chief wicket-taker. Only two Jaguar batsmen got into double figures as they were bowled out for a paltry 66.

Rebels CC played Indorama CC in the last game of the weekend, a T20 game. Mohammad Alfhariz bowled well at the start once again to have Indorama CC struggling at the start and wickets to Owais & Gaurav Tandon meant that Indorama were off to a poor start at 33 for 4.

Nitin Joshi, however was batting brilliantly and paced his innings superbly and in partnership with R. Srikkanth, who had been called back by the Rebels skipper after being given out caught, rebuilt a strong reply. Nitin, then exploded in the last two overs, which went for 41 runs to take Indorama to a strong 142.

Rain clouds were threatening and players had to go back to the confines of the crowded pavilion after the fifth over with Indorama just ahead on DLS. Play resumed after some desperate mopping efforts and Rebels skipper Anwesh Bose played a blinder hitting 43 of just 20 balls to pull his side ahead. A calm Sujeet, who controlled the innings well, took Rebels home with four wickets in hand.

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