An exhilarating mid-table battle between the Chiba Sharks and the Men In Blue came down to the last wicket. 

Batting first, the Men In Blue started slow due to some great opening bowling from Sharks’ Muneeb Siddique and Hamid Bacha. Middle-order pair Sopan Shirdhonkar (44) and Narendra Dharajiya (43) fought back with a great partnership to lead their team to a total of 200 for nine after 40.

The Sharks’ chase began well with the top five contributing valuable runs to the chase, Siddique contributing again top scoring with 36. Men In Blue on the other hand were able to grab regular wickets and not allow any big partnerships to form. Manav Natarajan had the best success with the ball taking four wickets including the ninth wicket leaving the Sharks needing 17 more. Bacha, Sharks’ number 10 batter came to the rescue hitting the winning runs in the 38th over including a massive six to give his team a massive one-wicket win.

After their shocking upset win, the Rising Stars have followed it up this round by beating a depleted Wyverns side. 

Missing their captain and leading run scorer Wataru Miyauchi, the Wyverns batters struggled from the onset. Promoted to number five, Nozomi Tomizawa made the most of the opportunity scoring 42 off a run-a-ball. Despite Tomizawa’s efforts, the Rising Stars were ruthless with the ball bowling the Wyverns out for 150 in the 37th over. Sixth bowling option R H Shimul was the standout with impressive figures of three for 19 off eight overs.

The Wyvern’s opening bowlers Yusuke Wakuta and Tomizawa worked hard to take as many wickets up top sharing five between them. It was not enough in the end as the Rising Stars’ batters scratched their way to the total as first-innings bowling standout Shimul, played a cool-headed 34* to bring his side a bonus point four-wicket victory.

Sano brought up their first bonus point victory of the season against the Tokyo Wombats.

Winning the toss and electing to bat, Captain Souta Wada led by example with a top score of 39 for his side. A valuable quickfire 31 from tailender Ryan Drake boosted Sano’s total to 200 for 9 after 40.

Missing the reliable Alex Shirai-Patmore at the top, the Wombats struggled to find runs from the other batters who needed to step up. Sano’s fearless bowlers were too much for the side with Shotaro Hiratsuka spearheading the attack bowling eight overs with figures of three for 17. It took till the 30th over to bowl the Wombats out for 73 winning by a total of 127 runs and securing the bonus point win.

POINTS TABLE: HERE