By Richard Boxall

Sri Lanka Lions’ all-rounder Sadesh Gimhan had a day to remember on Sunday. His transport to his team’s quarter final match in the BAOFinancial Autumn T20 Cup presented by HurryCurry did not appear, so he took a taxi from his home in Paphos to the Happy Valley ground at Episkopi.

On arrival he found his team in the field with only 8 other players, plus two substitutes. As 8 overs had already been bowled, he was not allowed to bowl until after the 16th over, but in his solitary over he took two Cyprus Knight Riders wickets for just 5 runs.

Then he came in to bat with his team struggling a little at 77-4, still needing 40 in 8 overs with only 4 wickets left, and played with a technique and calmness that put his teammates to shame. But wickets continued to fall at the other end until he was joined at the end of the 16th over by last man Nadeecha Jayodh, with 27 runs still needed in the last 4 overs.

Nadeecha played sensibly in support while Sadesh scored most of the required runs, finishing on an invaluable 19 not out to secure a dramatic victory. It has to be said that the Knight Riders threw away their own chance of winning by dropping a number of catches throughout the innings, much to the frustration of their captain Alamgir Hossain who took 3-21 and suffered most from the drops.

Earlier the Knight Riders were all out for 116, a disappointing total with 4 overs unused. Jowel Mia had given them a decent start, and Yeasin Molla and Hridoy Hossain put together a sensible stand of 40 which was ended by a reckless run-out, leading to a rapid loss of the last five wickets. For the Lions Akila Kalugala took wickets with his first two balls, and finished with 3-22.

So, a little fortunately, the Sri Lanka Lions progressed to the semi finals, where they will meet the winners of the delayed match between Markhor and Moufflons.

In the other quarter final played at the weekend, Napa Kings enjoyed an ultimately fairly comfortable win over the BFC team. Initially the Kings found the going difficult against good opening bowling by Windy Miller and Matty Hone, but a steady innings by Sanaullah Safi, ignoring all attempts at “sledging”, kept them on track, and a good partnership of 47 later on by Kamaljit Singh and Manzoor Ali took them to 122-8.

Scott Burdekin abandoned his usual off-spin to try some medium-pace bowling and took 3-28, and there were some good catches taken, notably two by newcomer Guy Nichols.

When they batted, BFC found the extra pace of the Napa Kings bowlers hard to handle. Kashif Pervaiz was the pick of the attack with 3-5, with good support from Manzoor Ali, Mohamad Ikram and Sukhdeep Singh who each took two wickets.

Matty Hone fought hard with 27 not out, but received little support until the arrival of last man Windy Miller who hit a breezy 19 from 14 balls to briefly raise hopes of an unlikely victory, until he was last out with the total on 81.

In the semi final Napa Kings have been drawn against MSN Punjab Lions, and on this form their bowling attack may give the Lions a challenging match.