Roman conquest of Cyprus Super Kings

By Richard Boxall

Moufflons batsman Roman Mazumder put the Cyprus Super Kings bowlers to the sword at Ypsonas cricket ground in the 2023 CCA BAOFinancial 40 Over Cup.

Opening the batting on a sizzling hot day, Roman put on 84 for the first wicket with Gurdeep Sharma, 158 for the second with Zeeshan Sarwar (77), and 98 for the fourth with Paramjit Singh (56) before being dismissed at 389-4 in only the 31st over, with his own score 167 from 91 balls, his innings including 6 sixes and 20 boundaries.

Moufflons were bowled out in the last of their 40 overs for 463, but the Super Kings put up a fight, making 366-8 in reply. Manikanta Ranimekala (79) and Rajasekhar Poluri (71) were the main run-scorers, putting on 126 together for the sixth wicket in 10 overs, but without any real chance of reaching their target.

The day’s other match, at Happy Valley, was a complete contrast, as Sri Lanka Lions bowled out Limassol Zalmi for 70, with Lahiru Udayanga taking 3-18. The Lions did not have matters all their own way as they lost 6 wickets, all to Jawad Shah (6-19 in 4 overs). With the score 37-6 an upset was on the cards, but Mangala Gunasekara steadied the ship with an unbeaten 31 and Roshan Siriwardana followed his two wickets with the ball by finishing the game with 4-4-6 from consecutive balls in the 10th over.

The league table shows Royal top with four wins from four games, and Sri Lanka Lions second with three wins from four. Moufflons have finished their programme with three wins and three losses, so any challenge to the top two is likely to come from Black Caps or Markhor, who have enough games left to close the gap.

Three very close matches were played in the T20 Cup, with Amdocs and Sri Lankans just failing to overcome the top teams in their respective groups, while Epi Lions secured their first win.

Amdocs did well to restrict the powerful MSN Punjab Lions to 119 (Vansham top-scoring with 34), with Hitesh Thadani taking 3-10 and Gaurav Singh Sagwan 3-32. After a third wicket stand of 63 between Chaitas Shah (38) and Vimal Khanduri (30) Amdocs appeared in control despite Sushil Kumar’s 3-27. After 18 overs their score stood at 111-3, with 9 runs needed from the last two overs.

But Lions bowlers Tejwinder Singh and Mangala kept their nerve and the runs dried up. Run-outs from the final two balls left Amdocs 3 runs from victory on 117-7, and the Lions had again found a way to win a tight game.

It was a day of mixed emotions for Sri Lankans’ skipper Chandana Prartana in their crucial game against the unbeaten Black Caps. After scoring 92 out of their total of 170, he was run out in sight of a century. He then took the responsibility of bowling the last over when Black Caps still needed 12 to win, but after two dot balls he was hit for consecutive sixes by Lovedeep Singh (22 not out) to take the Caps to a 3-wicket win.

Other useful contributions for the Caps came from Bhupinder Singh (44), Lovedeep Singh Sandhu (31), and, with the ball, Resham Singh (3-16), while Ajith Kumara took 3-25 for Sri Lankans.

Epi Lions have rejoined the league this season after a few years’ absence, and after a couple of defeats they recorded their first win, against Afghan Atalan. Bucking the general trend, they opted to field first, and restricted their opponents to 135 all out, with OJ Shakes taking 3-29.

The Lions’ batting relies heavily on the big-hitting Javin Isidore, and he did not disappoint, smashing 57 from 21 balls before being the first wicket to fall at 67-1. He had got his team well ahead of the required run rate, so the rest of the batters had plenty of time to accumulate the remaining runs, though not without a few nerves as they lost 8 wickets before reaching their target in the 18th over.

There is still much to play for in all the T20 groups except group B, where Nicosia Tigers and Moufflons have the top two positions sewn up and have qualified for the quarter finals.