Cricket: Sahajanand Builders Seychelles Junior League |12 November 2022
Seychelles Sixers in the lead
The third round of the Sahajanand Builders Seychelles Junior Cricket League was played last Saturday at the ‘Home of Cricket’ at Ile Persévérance ground.
Match one pitted two undefeated teams ‒ Seychelles Sixers and Mahe Predators ‒ who were both vying for top spot on the table along with the mighty Persévérance Lions. The Predators called rightly and put in the Sixers in to bat, this totally backfired as the Sixers came out hitting crashing the Predators bowlers all over the park. The Sixers batters put the swag into the Six hitting power and sauntered to a total of 99 runs off their allotted 10 over. The pick of the Sixers batters were Selvesh Senthil (28 runs), captain Hoswin Kannan (26 runs) and young Hari Patel (20 runs).
Mahe Predators got off to a slow start as they lost captain Prajesh Selvakumar following a brilliant run out of the fielding from Selvesh. This brought the two Vekaria brothers ‒ Raj and Ved ‒ to the crease and they consolidated the scoring. Raj scored 27 runs (smashing three 6s and one 4) and the younger Ved hit 13 runs (two 6s). Once the Vekaria boys got out, the inning stuttered to a close at 87 runs in the allotted 10 overs. Sixers thus won by 12 runs and moved to the top of the table.
The second match was played between the mighty Persévérance Lions and the Royal Strikers. The Strikers won the toss and chose to field first, sending the strong Lions batters to get the ball rolling. The Lions got off to a quick start, scoring 10 runs in the first over but lost both their openers in the second over. Captain Amazing Lithira Hathurusinghe walked in and galloped to a 10 ball 28 (four 6s and one 4). Bowler Maulik Jeshani took over and grabbed three quick wickets and bowled the Lions out for just 80 runs.
Strikers’ batters made light work of the targeted 80 runs which they overhauled in just 7 overs with captain JishinJins being the dominant batter for his side, scoring 18 runs and winning the match for his team, relegating Royal Strikers into fourth position on the log.
The last game of the day was played by bottom of log team Cascade XI and ER Elite Hitters. Both teams were fighting for their first win in the tournament. Once again captain Shamukha Chavadam called right at the toss and elected to bat first. Similar to last game they got off to a bad start losing early wickets. Captain Shamukha managed to stem the loss of wickets along with his co-captain Kiana Kate and got to a score of 90 runs.
For the Cascade XI, Janil and Aamir were the pick of the bowlers, each taking two wickets apiece with little Freddy Middleton adding one wicket to the bowling effort.
Chasing a middling score of 90 runs, Cascade XI got off to a rather slow start, losing both openers Chintham Patel and Liam Venter early. Then captain Janil and Aamir combined together to take the Cascadians over the line, scoring 92 runs in the ninth over to help them win by six wickets. The wins moves Cascade XI from the bottom of the table.
The fourth round of matches kicks off today at 10am.
The battles are now heating up for the various qualification spots up for grabs. Can the Sixers continue to dominate and remain undefeated or will the Lions and Predators bounce back to claim the top spot?
Come and watch the exciting battles especially with the Predators playing against the Lions.
The Seychelles Cricket Association thanks all its sponsors, especially Sahajanand Builders, General Traffic Limited IFS and many others who have contributed to Seychelles cricket.
Compiled by Vidya Gappy