Cricket: MSC / Enjoy Super league |13 April 2022

Natraj of GSP 7 (photo left ) and Udhayan Sivakumar of Deevas Kings

T20 cricket keeps players busy

The ongoing cricket tournament hosted match number 10 for both divisions 1 and 2 on Sunday at the Persévérance cricket ground.

In the morning match, division 2 teams SL United and Vijay Vikings clashed. Winning the toss Vijay Vikings opted to field. SL United had a strong partnership of 45 runs between Madhusanka and Rashen De Silva and managed to set a target of 173 runs followed by another between Thimeera Madhusanka who scored 68(40) and Mayura Nuwan 30(29).

The Vikings failed to chase the huge target and were all out for 82 runs.

SL united registered a solid 91-run victory with Madhusanka taking 3 wickets and Supun and Niroshan bagging two wickets each. As for Thimeera Madhusanka, he was selected as the player of match for his all-round performance.

SL United continue to lead the points table with 8 points after four straight wins.

The afternoon match was a division 1 affair between Narayan XI and Deevas Kings.

Winning the toss, Narayan opted to bat first. Skipper Deepak Radhakrishnan made an early strike by removing the wicket of Hitesh on the very first ball of the match.

Despite heavy rainfall the captains of both teams agreed to play in order to achieve a clear result and not to call off the match for the draw.

Kings’ bowlers continued to strike at regular intervals and managed to restrict them to a max score of 118 as they were bowled out within 18 overs. Among them Narayan's Pravin Gorasia scored 31(20) and Ajith Vekaria scored 21(21). Udhayan Sivakumar bowled a brilliant spell of 4 overs and conceded only 23 runs while taking four wickets. Devibalan bagged 2 wickets conceding 17 runs.

In the second innings of the match, Deevas Kings started to chase the target. Openers Vijayaraghavan and Arul threw their wickets against the pace bowlers of Narayan. Kings’ skipper Deepak Radhakrishnan and batsman Udhayan Sivakumar set up a solid partnership of 58 runs as their team slowly cruised to victory. Batsmen Udhayan Sivakumar 59(45) and Ramar 14(10) also made their contributions. The Kings scored 119/4 at the end of 15 overs to register their first win in this tournament.

Udhayan Sivakumar of Deevas Kings was selected as the player of the match for his all-round performance.

A week earlier, Team GSP 7 registered a strong victory.

The morning witnessed one of the important matches of the season in division 1 when Vijay Warriors played against GSP 7.

The Warriors managed to score only 80/10 at the end of 18.4 overs. Batsmen fell for low scores with Sachin Kunder grabbing 3 wickets.

At the other end, Sudhan Raja 23(45) and Stefan Knights 20(17) tried to anchor the innings for the Warriors but it was not enough to stop the GSP 7-A from winning. Chasing openers, Natraj and Rajiv had a quick start. With Rajiv getting out for 16(25), Natraj continued to play the innings fiercely. Persévérance witnessed some fireworks of short balls as Natraj was fearless when hitting 3 of the balls outside of the playing field for huge sixes.

GSP 7 scored 83/2 at the end of 8.5 overs and won the match.

Sachin Kunder was selected as the player of the match as GSP 7 showed a great comeback after their loss against Gran Kaz Kings in their previous encounter.

In the afternoon, Persévérance witnessed the clash of the debutants. Two of the new teams GSP 7-A and Spartan Warriors played against each other. Batting first GSP 7-A scored 114/6 in 20 overs with Vijayan 41(27) and Selva 23(37) scoring comfortably.

Upon batting Spartan Warriors lost early wickets and failed to chase the target as bowler Kothandam of GSP 7-A grabbed 5 wickets conceding only 10 runs to be named player of the match.

Contributed by Deepak Radhakrishnan, tournament director, Seychelles Cricket Association