After a much truncated season, we have finally reached the play off stage with the semi finals confirmed across all three JCL Divisions. 

In the end the four qualifiers from Division One confirmed their spots with room to spare. MAX CC were virtually there already and completed a 100% record in the league with a 25-run win over Men In Blue, who were chasing an upset and unlikely play-off berth. 

The win was set up by battings stars Vinay Iyer (52) and Supun Nawarathna (67) who put on 96 for the second wicket to lay the foundations for a 216/9 total. Vivek Singh continued his good form with three for 36 for the Men in Blue. 

Three wickets in the opening five overs set MIB back but Naveen Negi (55) and Ankit Panwar (41) rebuilt the innings with a 95-run partnership. They departed within the space of three balls to effectively end the contest, although a 19-ball 40 from Deepak Singh had MAX worried before Takuro Hagihara returned to collect his third wicket for 30 runs and wrap up the match and unbeaten league campaign. 

The Tokyo Falcons recorded a best-ever league finish, stepping up from 4th last year to 2nd this time around. They recorded two wins in the final round to make themselves serious contenders. Firstly they brushed aside Sano CC, after Souta Wada’s 56 had taken the home side to 202 all out, Nilesh Shahane (56) and Pankey Pandhari (89*) added 97 for the fourth wicket after the top three all fell without scoring to Reiji Suto (three for 39).

A four wicket win in that game preceded a much tighter affair against Wyverns, who needed a lot to go their way to make the finals…and nothing did. Despite a patient 85 from Shogo Kimura, Abhi Telang grabbed four for 41 to limit Wyverns to 211/9 after their 40 overs. Wyverns then looked in control as the league’s leading wicket-takers Kohei Kubota and Tomonoshin Oki (three for 24) ran amok with the new ball to have Falcons five down with just 50 on the board. 

No total is safe however, as long as Sarfraz Petkar remains at the crease. He played one of the great JCL innings, bringing up his century off 66 balls, and his second 50 off a ridiculous 19. The next highest score by his teammates was 16 and although Kubota returned to dismiss him and claim career-best figures of five for 27, the final pair were able to scramble home for a one-wicket win in the final over. 

Defending Champions Tigers cricket club have not played a match since 9th October, but were relieved to have done enough to finish third, while Chiba Sharks managed to hold off the Rising Stars to book their place in the final four. After a disappointing title defence in 2020, Ibrahim Takahashi has started in all formats to make the Sharks contenders once again, and confidence is high after a surprise 2nd place finish in the Japan Cup Finals. 

Even without captain Dhugal Bedingfield, who looks a doubt for finals, the Sharks had too much as Takahashi top scored with 51, his third half-century of the season, as Sharks posted 172/9. He then took four for 27 to help dismiss the Rising Stars for 156, earning a 16-run win which secured fourth place.

Sharks vs Rising Stars @Sano 1

The two biggest disappointments of the season have been the Alpha Quashers and Sano CC, and these two teams met in the first midweek fixture in the JCL on Wednesday 3rd November, a game that will be remembered for the breakthrough innings of Aditya Phadke, whose unbeaten 65 was almost more than Sano CC managed entirely. 

Quashers posted 235/7 thanks to the young starlets maiden half century, and then rolled Sano over for just 69 with the wickets shared around. That win by 166 runs gave a big boost to their net run rate and was enough to ultimately lift them out of the bottom two and into seventh. 

The Quashers reverted to form in their final game however, as the Men In Blue finished with a flourish. Prashanth Manvi took three for 26 to bowl the Quashers all out for 111 before Naveen Negi struck a career best 61* to see his side home with nine wickets to spare. 

So the Semi Finals are confirmed as below: 

• Semi Final 1: MAX CC vs Chiba Sharks
• Semi Final 2: Tigers CC vs Tokyo Falcons

These matches will be played on Sunday 21st November. 

In Divisions Two and Three the Semi Finalists are as follows:

• Division Two (1) Paddy Foleys vs (4) Men In Blue
• Division Two (2) Tokyo Falcons vs (3) Tokyo Rangers
• Division Three (1) Tigers CC vs (4) Men In Blue
• Division Three (2) Tokyo Rangers vs (3) Tokyo Falcons

Thanks must once again go to all our umpires across these matches, they were: Chris Thurgate, Amit Phadke, Prashant Kale, Pankaj Chand, Girish Deshpande, Mumtaz Alam & Uddika Pradeep

Lastly, the October Player of the Month Award goes to…Ibrahim Takahashi. Ibby has been in incredible form this season and was vital in the Chiba Sharks firstly reaching the Japan Cup Finals and then carrying the team all the way to the Grand Final. In his last five matches he has scored 247 runs and taken 10 wickets; a deserving winner of the award.

What was looking like a disastrous season for Wyverns Cricket Club was turned around last weekend with two close, hard fought victories that turned them from relegation threatened to play-off outsiders. 

On Saturday on SICG Two against the Chiba Sharks it was two former-national squad players who set them up as Shogo Kimura more than doubled his run tally for the season with a well structured 73 in partnership with Raheel Kano, whose 62 was his fourth half-century of the competition. 

A total of 231/7 (Neel Date three for 42 for the Sharks) looked around average before the Sharks openers got off to a flyer. Marcus Thurgate (49) and Dhugal Bedingfield (32) out on 83 for the first wicket and Ibrahim Takahashi added a rapid 38 to have the Sharks coasting at 156/2 in the 24th over, before things turned dramatically. 

A phenomenal spell of 3.4 overs, five wickets for three runs by Kohei Kubota stunned the Sharks and turned the game on it’s head as Wyverns took the last six wickets for just 11 runs to bowl the Sharks all out for 209 in 37.4 overs and win by 21 runs. 

Buoyed by that stunning victory, Wyverns backed it up the very next day with another nervy win, this time against Sano CC. 

Kubota made an impact in his second over, dismissing the dangerous Musashi Yamamoto without scoring, but Noboru Asanaka was already doing the damage on his way to three for 24. Bebe Miyaji provided some resistance with a measured 42 to lift Sano to 136 all out, as Tomoki Ota grabbed three for 21 to wrap up the innings. 

Sano made Wyverns work in the chase, Shotaro Hiratsuka striking twice to reduce Wyverns to 45/4 but captain Wataru Miyauchi anchored the innings with 47* to see his side home with three wickets in hand. 

Photo by Takuro Hagihara (Wyverns Facebook page)

That defeat completed a disastrous weekend for Sano CC which left them anchored at the foot of the table. After collapsing early against the Tokyo Wombats, Miyaji set up his good weekend with the bat by making 67*, his highest score in the division since 2015. His partnership of 124 for the 6th wicket with Pradeep Roshan (70) reduced Sano as they ended 241/7. 

Tokyo Wombats are blessed with the strongest opening partnership in the league, and they proved it by adding 196 for the first wicket to all but end the contest. Alex Patmore (67) is averaging 106.4 this season, but it was Richie Bracefield who stole the show as he smoked his first JCL century off just 83 deliveries. 

Bracefeild was eventually dismissed for 129, Wombats had already done enough to get home with three overs and eight wickets remaining. A fine way for Wombats to complete their league season with a comfortable mid-table finish; the same cannot be said for struggling Sano however. 

That was not the only century of the Round, as Tokyo Falcons took a giant stride towards the Semi-Finals thanks to an inspired knock by Sarfraz Petkar. Alpha Quashers had totalled 190/9 in their 40 overs, thanks to 60 by Rohit Kesari, and looked in control when they reduced Falcons to 85/6 in the 16th over. 

However, Petkar only knows one way to bat and his first JCL century, from 60 balls, was brought up with back-to-back sixes. He added 91 in 13.4 overs with Sameep Dewar (21) and Falcons crept home by two wickets with seven overs remaining to make them favourites to reach the playoffs in second place behind MAX CC. The Quashers however, have Sano to thank for keeping them off the foot of the table, a far cry from the 2020 Grand Final. 

In the last game of the round the Men in Blue went some way to rescuing their season with a six wicket win over the Rising Stars who they dismissed for 160 despite 52 from Ashik Chowdhury; Deepak Singh the pick of the bowlers with three for 18.

MIB were off to a flying start at Naveen Negi whacked 38 from 26 balls before Abhipray Dewan took up the batton to steer his team home by six wickets with a run-a-ball 61*.

Thanks as always to the JCL Umpire Panel: 

• Sano CC vs Tokyo Wombats: Shailaj Lal & Sagar Kamble
• Wyverns CC  vs Chiba Sharks: Dev Mishra & Amit Phadke
• Men In Blue vs Rising Stars: Chris Thurgate & Mumtaz Alam
• Wyverns CC vs Sano CC: Natarajan Dhakshinamoorthy & Shrikanth Durairaj
• Tokyo Falcons vs Alpha Quashers Yokohama: Darshak Bhuptani & Kris Bayne

There is life in the old dog yet! It will take more than a few high temperatures to knock out the Japan Cricket League, and as numbers decline nationwide, so the numbers return to cricket scorecards. 

The season has not come out totally unscathed with at least one round lost, so now every match now takes on serious significance. 

The break has not been kind to everyone with the defending champions Tigers CC left stewing for two months on back to back defeats. Keen to set the record straight, they were first out of the blocks to take on the Rising Stars who had enjoyed the longest unbeaten run of their Division One lifetime. 

The match went to form as the Rising Stars dismissed the Tigers for a paltry 133, only that high thanks to some late hitting from Piyush Kumbbhare (54); Arman Bhuiyan was the chief tormentor with three for 18 from his eight overs. 

Defending such a total was a big ask but Tigers made a fair go of it, taking seven Rising Stars wickets, but a composed 39* from Ruhul Kabir was enough to give his team a win by three wickets, their third of the season, and a chance of making the Semi Finals. 

On the neighbouring ground the grudge match between Tokyo Falcons and Men In Blue did not disappoint as both teams fought hard for bragging rights. 

Batting first MIB battled hard to 182/9 from their 40 overs, lifted by some typical bombast from Vivek Singh  (27* off 25) batting at 10, after 35 from Ankur Kumar had laid some sort of foundation; Abhi Telang taking three for 32 for Falcons. 

In the chase Falcons were in trouble when they lost their fourth wicket with just 53 on the board, but the middle order steadied the ship thanks to 55 from Nilesh Shahane while Sarfraz Petkar did his usual six-hitting routine on his way to 49 from 38 balls. A brief flurry of wickets gave MIB hope, but Falcons crept over the line to win by two wickets to keep themselves in the top four. 

The following weekend just one match was possible, and despite the predictable result, MAX vs Wombats was described by the umpires as “a proper contest”. 

A half-century from Supun Nawarthna (54) set MAX on their way while 39 from Makoto Taniyama provided further ballast, before Shubham Shukla wallopped 32 from just nine balls to lift the total to 235 all out of 38.4 overs.

The chase was always likely to depend on the Wombats top order and Alex Patmore maintained his fine form with another measured 63 while Muhammad Ali matched him run-for-run. While those two were together the Wombats had hope, but a middle order collapse left Jarrad Shearer (25*) and Joe Lewis just too much to do as MAX restricted them to 231/9 in order to win by just four runs and make it seven wins from seven this year. 

In the final match of what One Short has branded “Restart Round One” the Tigers finally earned their first win in three months despite the best efforts of that man Patmore once again. 

Anil Kumar (85) and Manoj Bhardwaj (41) added 93 for the seventh wicket to turn a middling Tigers total into a very good one of 270/8 in 40 overs, with wickets shared around the Wombats bowlers once again. 

Patmore and Richie Bracefield started the chase in determined fashion with a 123-run opening partnership that had Tigers scratching their heads for long spells, but once Sabaorish Ravichandran got the breakthrough, dismissing Bracefield for 49, the door was ajar. 

Manoj Bhardwaj was the unlikely hero for the Tigers with the ball, sparking a collapse of five wickets for 16 runs on his way to figures of three for 23, although it was at the other end where the most telling blow was struck as the unlucky Patmore fell for yet another score in the 90s (98). 

Tigers eventually restricted the Wombats to 241/9 from their 40 overs and a win by 29 runs, enough to keep them safely in the hunt for the top four, while these two defeats have damaged what had previously been an exciting season for the Fuji-based Wombats. 

Thanks as always to our umpires in these testing times, all of whom made the journey down to Fuji: 

• Tigers CC vs Rising Stars: Prathick Kulothungan & Dave Sahaya
• Tokyo Falcons vs Men In Blue: Darshak Bhuptani & Kris Bayne
• MAX CC vs Tokyo Wombats: Sabaorish Ravichandran & Manoj Bhardwaj
• Tigers CC vs Tokyo Wombats: Rob Newman & Darshak Bhuptani

While the Japan Cup will take centre stage for the next couple of weekends, the JCL still has 11 matches left to play before the Semi-Finals, so plenty of twists and turns still to be had, although the gap is widening between the top four and the rest.