A perfect example for the youngsters - a century and six wickets for Gupta

Sanjay Gupta, who travels all the way from Eilat to play cricket, produced a remarkable individual performance for Dimona A on Saturday, scoring 108 runs with the bat and then going on to take 6 wickets with the ball, essentially single handedly leading his team to a 40-run win over the Negev Academy. Be'er Sheva's woes continued as they were outplayed by Young Ashdod, whilst Neve Yonatan and Tel Aviv both won their fixtures to remain level on points at the top of the Division 2 table.

Although still relatively early in the season, victory in the match between Young Ashdod and Be'er Sheva A, played in Ashdod, would have been vital to both teams aspirations of avoiding relegation. Shai Penkar led the way for the hosts, with 62 runs, and with Danny Malyankar contributing 35, Young Ashdod would have been satisfied with their total of 208.

Be'er Sheva's reply began with a characteristic top order collapse, and although Avraham Benjamin (24) and David Gudker (23) steadied things for a period in the middle order, the damage had been done earlier. Shai Gefen (4 for 26) removed Gudker before running through the tail as Be'er Sheva were all out for 125, losing by 83 runs.

Despite a good innings of 45 from Isaac Samson, and a total of 27 wides gifted to them by the Tel Aviv bowlers, Ramle were unable to even come close to reaching their target of 178 set earlier by their opponents. Stanley Perlman took 3 for 23, and there were two wickets a piece for Brett Kree, Paul Thomas and Avner Greenberg, as Tel Aviv produced a good fielding performance to dismiss Ramle for 126.

Having been asked to bat first, Thomas played particularly well in scoring 48, Frank Auger compiled a patient 45, and Perlman played a typical cameo knock of 31 as Tel Aviv reached 177 for 6 against unthreatening, albeit tidy, bowling. Raymond Talkar picked up 3 for 33 in his spell, including two wickets in successive balls in his 2nd over.

Lod suffered a major batting collapse in being dismissed for just 66 in pursuit of the 172 runs required for victory against Neve Yonatan at Hadar Yosef. Aby Daniels was in good all round form, scoring 27 and taking 2 for 7 in 6 overs for the visitors, for whom Shimshon Razpurker top scored with 56. Only Shimon Penkar from Lod could return home with his head help up high, returning bowling figures of 3 for 32.

Artur Arutinyan scored 52 and Adiel Changuakar 34 to lead a fight back by the Negev Academy, whose top six batsmen managed just 21 runs between them, none of them managing to find a response to the left arm pace bowling of Gupta. But despite the rearguard action, the Negev Academy were dismissed for 185, Gupta claiming 6 for 40. Earlier, Dimona A reached 225 on the back of Gupta's fine century.

Raphael Eliazar top scored with 37 for Petah Tikva, who could manage just 131 all out against the Diamonds in a Division 3 match played at Hadar Yosef. Diamonds had little trouble reaching their target, securing a 5-wicket win in the 33rd over.