The Yadavas Chairos Tigers team (Courtesy of Yadavas Chairos Tigers team)

History was created in the JCA league when the Yadavas Chairos Tigers became the first all-Indonesian team to win the league in its 26 years of existence.

The win is the culmination of efforts over the years to develop grassroots cricket across the various provinces of this vast archipelago. The Tigers took out the trophy with a big margin of 60 points having lost just one of their 14 games.

This is a landmark moment in the history of Indonesian cricket, said a visibly delighted Abhiram Singh Yadav, the owner of the team and also the vice chairman of the Indonesian Cricket Association. The fact that different players contributed in key moments across the season reflects the growing depth of Indonesian cricketing talent in the country said Sachin Gopalan, the coowner of the team.

This weekend’s games also saw the Jakarta Barbarians emerge as the runners-up in Division 1 as they ended up with a better run-rate than the Texmoda TKCC Royals despite being tied with them on points. The Barbarians had the chance to become outright runners-up on points by winning their last game, but were beaten by a determined Jaguar CC on Saturday, which meant they had to anxiously wait for the results of the match between WISCI and the Senayan Lions on Sunday. The Lions beat WISCI on Sunday to give the Barbarians the runners-up title.

Jaguar CC took on the Barbarians in a 35-over game that had a lot at stake for both teams. The Barbarians were looking for a win to finish runners-up while a win for Jaguar CC would help it avoid relegation to Division 2.

The Jaguar openers Nitin Sharma and Hanan Khalid continued their great form with another 103-run opening stand to set up a great platform for their team.

Eki Antaria fought back with two quick wickets but skipper Karanjit Singh stepped up at the right time with a breezy knock as Jaguar CC ended their 35 overs with a good score of 237 runs.

Ben Burgess and Eki Antaria put on a good stand to setup the Barbarians’ chase but Abhay Sharma claimed Eki Antaria and then Jagdeep Singh bowled a scorcher to get rid of the dangerous Ben Burgess.

Though Tim Gutsell put on a good fight he did not get enough support from the other batsmen and the Barbarians were eventually bowled out 67 runs short. Aryan Khan bowled brilliantly for Jaguar CC. With the win, Jaguar CC avoided relegation to Division 2, meaning the Lions and WPP India XI were relegated.

WISCI needed to beat the Lions in their 35-over game on Sunday in order to end up being runners-up of Division 1. Viraj Bhammar played a crucial anchoring role and eventually ended up carrying his bat, falling just two runs short of a ton.

He got very good support from Maneesh Dubey and Syed Kabir and was also helped by some very loose bowling, which conceded 45 extras. The Lions ended with a strong score of 282 in their 35 overs.

WISCI’s chase started well with Aman Singh dropping anchor while Naresh Gupta exploded at the other end. Things were looking ominous for the Lions, before Sampath Kumar struck with the crucial wicket of Gupta. Amar Kapadia then spun his web to reduce WISCI to 117 for 7 and all seemed lost.

The young Danielson Hawoe, however, had other ideas as he partnered superbly with skipper William, but they were falling well behind the required run rate and in the end, WISCI could only manage 243 runs in 35 overs.

Padmakar Surve and Keyur Moradia starred in Mavecrics CC’s comfortable win over Rawamangun CC (RCC) on Sunday. Nimesh Shah had RCC struggling at 44 for 4 after RCC chose to bat first. Yeri Rosongna and Andrew Sandi helped rebuild the innings but Padmakar Surve’s superb spell of 4 for 10 meant that RCC could only manage 132 in their 35 overs.

Solid contributions by Mitesh Dingra and Keyur Moradia ensured that Mavecrics chased down the target with 5 wickets in hand.

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