By Richard Boxall

The weekend’s cricket in the 2023 CCA BAOFinancial 40 Over Cup and T20 Cup emphasised the current strength of Royal and Punjab Lions respectively.

After convincing wins Royal sit top of the 40 over competition with three wins from three games, while MSN Punjab Lions have a similar record in group A of the T20, as do Nicosia Tigers in group B and Black Caps in group C. The situation in group D is less clear, as no team has really imposed themselves on the group yet.

Royal had a remarkable win over Markhor, bowling them out for 175 (Nadeem Qamar 60) thanks to Umar Farooq’s 5-32, before knocking off the runs in just 74 balls, with Waqas Akhtar making 60 and Zeeshan Mehmood 45 not out.

The other 40-over game was won by Sri Lanka Lions with a total of 140 (Roshan Siriwardana 30 not out, Srinath Rajith 29). Moufflons performed well in the field with Waqar Ali taking 4-35, Hardeep Singh 3-33, and Gurdeep Sharma 2-5 from 5 overs.

However with the bat Moufflons failed completely, only reaching their score of 106 due to a last wicket stand of 41 by Muhammad Mohsin (29) and Murtaza Yamin who was run out just as hopes of an unlikely victory were starting to appear. For the Lions Srinath took 3-29 and

Mangala Gunasekara, getting back into full swing with his bowling after injury, 3-38.

In the T20 next day Mangala was again in form with 60 runs and 4 wickets for 18 to help MSN Punjab Lions to a 166-run win over Napa Royal Kings. Kulwinder Singh added 54, but the real fireworks came from Sushil Kumar whose unbeaten 82 came off 26 balls with 9 sixes as the last 7 overs of the innings produced 122 runs, to reach a total of 287-7.

For Napa Royal Kings Mohamad Ikram took 3-33 and Gursewak Singh scored 57 but they were never able to challenge such a big target and were all out for 121.

In the day’s other game, a Limassol derby, Prashant Patel’s 31 helped Qalandars to146, while Limassol Moufflons’ Salman Akram took 5-33. In reply the Moufflons fell short on 125, with Qalandars’ Muhammad Mohsin bagging 3-16.

Next weekend’s highlight could be the meeting of the top two in the 40-over league – Royal and Black Caps – at Ypsonas on Saturday, a match that could go a long way towards settling the outcome of the competition.