Who will carry the day? Three teams share top place in NIC Bank T20 cricket tournament

Shree Cutchi Leva Patel's batsman, Yagesh Kabariya on a balanced back foot stand during NPCL at Nairobi Gymkana grounds on Sunday, Oct 4, 2015. PHOTO/ JONAH ONYANGO.

Mombasa Sports Club, Coast Gymkhana and Shree are tied at top place with 10 points.

Mombasa Sports Club (MSC), Coast Gymkhana and Shree Cutchi Leva are tied on top of the NIC Bank T20 cricket tournament.

The three teams tie with 10 points from six matches each but Sports Club are on top courtesy of 938 runs compared to Gymkhana’s 876 and 854 runs for Cutchi Leva. Sports Club consolidated their leadership after they defeated former Coast league champions Jaffery by 35 runs.

Playing at home, Mombasa Sports Club decided to bat first as old rivals prepared to crash head-on.

Early wickets forced Sports Club’s star batsman Sagar Karia 65runs, to once again dig deep and play a crucial role to ensure his side reached a defendable total of 154/6.

Kenyan veteran Maurice Odumbe 2/18 graced the NIC CUP for the first time, but even his tight spell could not restrict Sports Club to a low enough total.

Regular bowling changes by MSC did not give the Jaffery batsmen a chance to attack during their run chase. Vishal Shikotra 3/12 and Taha sulemanji 2/23 did most of the damage to restrict Jaffery to 119/8 with valiant efforts from Reagan 28 and Zahid Abbas 24.

In another match Burhani beat Pakistan cricket club by 92 runs. Kenyan star Collins Obuya top scored with 118 runs, which helped the winners reach 228/8, but not before his team lost four wickets in the last over with Arslan 4/18 claiming their scalps.

A horrendous start to the chase as both opening batsmen of Pakistan did not trouble the scorer. Only noticeable efforts were by Affan 43 runs and Asif 42 runs as they succumbed to the huge total, only managing 134 all out.

Mohammed Badal spell of 4/25 slowed the game to victory.Mombasa Heat defeated Mombasa Simba by seven wickets in another match.

Fielding a young and inexperienced though talented side, Simba Struggled to get going when Heats put them in to bat.

Only hard hitting Manoj Patel 32 runs stood out as his side were mercilessly attacked by experienced fast and spin bowling, only managing 90 runs all out.

For the Heats, Kenyan star Jimmy Kamande 5/9 with the ball and top scoring with 38 runs once again showed that he still has what it takes as he guided his team to victory.

The fourth match of the day saw Shree Cutchi Leva stun the host Coast Gymkhana Sports Club when they dismissed by four wickets.

Coast Gymkhana elected to bat, starting off with a good opening knock of 61, Naman Patel 47 runs top scoring before wickets started to tumble.

Adarsh Sawjani with 36 runs tried to maintain stability but Cutchi’s bowlers weren’t giving away much and restricted Gymkhana to 139/8.

Khilesh Hirani once again impressed with his spell of 3/28. An early run out in the run chase got everyone to hold their breath but a calm calculated approach by the Cutchi boys saw them reach the target with four balls to spare.

Pritesh Hirani 41, held his nerve and top scored for his side while the usual pair of Akshay Banderi 25 and Kartik Pindoria 29 saw the game through.

 

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