JCL Round 9

The Rising Stars who were dead last a few rounds ago have now suddenly shot up to mid-table after their big win over the Tokyo Wombats.

In a reduced 30-over match, the Rising Stars won the toss and elected to bowl. It was an excellent decision for Captain Murad Kazi as his team restricted the Wombats to 127 for eight. The standout bowler was Md Alagmir with figures of 3 for 20 off his six, but credit to the whole team as they also strung three runouts in the inning.

The Rising Stars were in some strife early but an excellent partnership between Captain Murad and first-innings star Alagmir both scored 29 to relieve stress back in the Rising Stars camp. In the end, the Rising Stars made it home with six overs to spare winning by four wickets making it their third win in a row.

Dhugal Bedingfield would go on to score his sixth JCL century to give his team a massive victory over the Paddy Foleys.

After being dropped on 10, Captain Bedingfield made the Paddy Foleys pay the price playing flawlessly from that point on. Bedingfield went on to score 122 at over a hundred strike rate to lead his side. Significant contributions from Japan National team players; Tsuyoshi Takada (46) and Muneeb Siddique (44) all chipped in to post a mammoth total of 316 for nine after 40.

The Sharks were also superb with the ball in the second innings led by Hamid Bacha, who knocked off the top order and the tail to claim an incredible six-wicket haul. Besides Wassem Javed scoring a gutsy 44, the Sharks’ bowlers were too much, bowling out Paddy Foleys for 128 on the 24th over. The bonus point 188-run win meant they have climbed up to fifth on the table, edging closer to the top four.

JCL Round 10 

After another big win over the Alpha Quashers, Max has now become the number one team on the JCL standings.

After winning the toss and choosing to bowl, Max’s bowlers set the platform right from the start. All six of Max’s bowlers took a wicket, but young leg spinner Chathuranga Nipun stood above the rest. Nipun took five wickets at an economy under two off six overs, making the Alpha Quashers’ batters look silly. Max bowled out the Alpha Quashers in the 21st over for just 82.

As they have all season, Max did not waste any time in the chase. Openers Prabaoda Dassanayake (30) and Hanif Niazi (41*) scored at a rapid rate to chase Aplha Quashers’ total on the 10th over. The nine-wicket win was Max’s fifth bonus point win putting their team sitting top of the table with only a few rounds left.

Wataru Miyauchi scored his second century of the season as JCL’s leading run scorer leading his side to a tight thriller against the Paddy Foleys.

Batting first, the Wyverns’ openers Miyauchi and Shogo Kimura nearly put on a 100-run opening stand before Kimura fell to a running mishap. Despite another communication mix-up soon after, Miyauchi (111) kept making batting look easy, bringing up his 100 at over a run a ball. Raheel Kano added further support scoring 48 to finish with a total of 275/9 after 40 overs.

With rain approaching, the Paddy Foleys got off to a great start being 108 for one off the first 11 overs as Khawaja Salman took to the Wyverns openers.  Even when Salman fell at 57, the Paddy Foleys were still in a great position in terms of run rate, however, a late flurry of wickets came at the wrong time as rain stopped play for the remainder of the match. At 217 for six the Duckworth-Lewis system had the Wyverns just squeaking by with a one-run win as Noboru Asanaka had a great bowling performance with figures of three for 26 off eight.

Men in Blue had themselves a bonus point win on the back of a six-wicket performance by Naveen Negi.

Facing the Rising Stars, the Men in Blue bowled out the side for 177 in the 38th over. Rising Stars’ number three and four batters; R Shimul (55) and Md Alamgir (46) combined for a 93-run partnership as the team was looking good at 108 for two. But then Negi came back into the attack and ripped through the whole batting order taking six for 23 off seven overs to set up the chase.

Things were looking troublesome early for the Men in Blue, four down within the first nine overs. Fortunately, cool-headed innings from Saifuddin Raj gave his side much-needed runs scoring 54 at a healthy strike rate. That left Vishal Patel to come in and swing the bat scoring 31* off 15 to chase the total down in the 25th over, securing the Men In Blue a bonus point four-wicket win.

Sano had a big win over the Tokyo Rangers to leapfrog them in the standings.

Winning the toss and choosing to bowl in a reduced 35 ove game, Sano had the ideal start knocking off both openers for ducks. Sano did a great job all innings not letting any of the Rangers’ batters settle as only Mlinda Sanjaya (28) was the only batter to go on to score over 20 in the innings. Sano eventually bowled out the side for 119 in the 32nd over as Kazumasa stood out of the bowling collective with impressive figures of five overs, three for seven.

Sano’s chase began slow and worrying losing their openers to run-outs. Luckily for their side, Reo Sakurano-Thomas dug the team out of a hole scoring 60 and falling just two runs short of the total. Nonetheless, Sano took the five-wicket win and found themselves one point below the top of the table.

An incredible eighth-wicket partnership brought the Tokyo Falcons a huge upset win over the Tigers.

Falcons batted first after winning the toss and were in a bit of strife early at five for 66. Safraz Petkar quickly changed things when he came in hitting eight sixes to score a hasty 66. When Petkar fell, the Tigers were still looking on top but then a huge 164-run partnership between Kuldeep Bisht (82) and Abhi Telang (89) turned the tables. The pair combined for 20 sixes to get the Falcons to a very competitive total of 283 for eight after 40.

The Tigers started at a healthy run rate but regular wickets hurt them. Other than Anil Kumar who would go in to score 56, no one else was able to support and build partnerships. Credit to the Falcons bowlers as captain Bisht used all 10 available bowlers to keep the Tigers batters unsettled. Captain Bisht himself took the best figure of three for 44 as they managed to bowl out the tigers in the 38th over and win by 51 runs.

POINTS TABLE: HERE