By Richard Boxall

MSN Punjab Lions re-established themselves at the pinnacle of Cyprus cricket by winning the final of the 2024 BAOFinancial Autumn T20 Cup presented by HurryCurry at Happy Valley on Sunday, beating Markhor by 4 wickets.

Markhor made a strong start after being put in to bat, scoring 49 in the powerplay overs, with Shahzad Ahmed leading the way with 39. Punjab Lions were unlucky to lose opening bowler Mangala Gunasekara to injury after his first ball, but recovered well later.

After reaching a good position the batting side hit too many shots in the air and fell away badly to 111 all out in the 18th over. Taranjit Singh had a field day with 4 wickets, 3 good catches and a run out as the Lions got right back into the game.

The match seemed to be comfortably under control when the Lions batted. After a decent start by the openers, they were coasting to victory through Zeeshan Mehmood (36) and Neeraj Tiwari (27), and the score advanced to 107-2 after 16 overs, leaving 5 runs needed from the last 4 overs with 8 wickets in hand.

At this point it appeared that the batsmen all wanted to finish the game in style with a big hit, and the beneficiary of this was Markhor’s veteran bowler Rauf Zaman, who clean bowled three batsmen in the 17th over to finish with figures of 3-16. Another wicket fell in the same fashion at the start of the 18th over before the Lions were finally able to clinch victory and get their hands on the trophy.

The competition’s leading batsman was Tharanga Pathirana of Lankan Sports Club with 224 runs. Top bowler was Mohamad Ikram of Napa Kings (13 wickets) and most victims in the field were taken by wicketkeepers Tom Gregory of BFC and Markhor’s Rasab Sher and the final’s star outfielder Taranjit, all with 7. The “most valuable player” of the season was Tharanga, narrowly ahead of Punjab Lions’ Tiwari.

Thanks are due to the sponsors, the umpires Martin Adams and Shakhawat Hossain, and to the teams for their punctuality and playing the match in a sporting spirit.

The autumn season was then rounded off with a women’s 10-over match between Sri Lanka Lions and Moufflons. The teams already stood at 1-1 in their 3-match series, and the final was a close affair which Sri Lanka Lions won by 4 wickets with just one ball to spare.

Moufflons made 80-2 in their 10 overs, with runs for Chandani Gamlath (25 not out), Iresha Chathurani (21) and Chandima (15 not out). In the Lions’ reply Tanuja top-scored with 20 but a large number of extras tilted the game in their favour. With three balls left two runs were still required and the batters scampered two singles to secure the win.

Moufflons had the competition’s leading player in Iresha, but it was Sri Lanka Lions who lifted the trophy.

Cricket will resume in February, and any new teams (men or women) interested in joining are welcome to enquire at [email protected]